


daffodils

by ymnfilter



Series: 𐐪𐑂 ♡ 𐐪𐑂 pressed flowers 𐐪𐑂 ♡ 𐐪𐑂 [2]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Bad Wolf Rose Tyler, F/M, Fluff, Immortal Rose Tyler, Season Rewrite, Season/Series 01, Time Travel, a lot of timey wimey stuff, and I'm giving it to him., because nine deserved better, with episodes from season 2
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-15 17:27:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 45,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28692450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ymnfilter/pseuds/ymnfilter
Summary: After the time war, the Doctor meets a Rose Tyler whose never met him before. But, things are different this time around. This is how it goes,**contains cameos from future Rose Tyler, some episode re-writes from season 2, and a much better ninth doctor treatment.**
Relationships: Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler, The Doctor (Doctor Who)/Rose Tyler, Twelfth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Series: 𐐪𐑂 ♡ 𐐪𐑂 pressed flowers 𐐪𐑂 ♡ 𐐪𐑂 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2063760
Comments: 86
Kudos: 347





	1. Episode 1: Rose [Part I]

**Author's Note:**

> So, this officially is the start of the pressed flower series, though, i would recommend reading 'forget me nots' if you haven't to get a better idea of the Doctor and Rose's history.
> 
> There's not a lot to tell. Just, this is going to be a major project, spanning multiple seasons, so i hope you will be patient with me :)
> 
> As always, comments and leave kudos if you like this. and if you want to talk to me or read some of my other works, you can always follow me on:
> 
> tumblr: [@ymnfilter](https://ymnfilter.tumblr.com)  
> twitter: [@ymnfilter](https://twitter.com/ymnfilter)
> 
> HAPPY READING!!

> _Daffodils:_
> 
> _Daffodils represent renewal and new beginnings. If one gives a loved one a bunch of daffodils, it means 'they're the only one' and is said to ensure happiness._

* * *

The day the Doctor finally met his golden girl for the very first time in _her_ linear timeline, it was, in some ways, like coming alive again. 

The war had shredded his soul to pieces, leaving the entire universe unrecognizable to his new eyes. His TARDIS was different, organic but damaged, _he_ was different. Taller, broader. He felt different. Gruffer, shorter temper, not as easy to smile as he used to be a lifetime ago. His head was silent, the last living specimen of a highly telepathic race. It took him years to gather enough courage to leave the zero room of his ship, and he only did so in order to repair his TARDIS. He had lost everyone he cared about in that war, he refused to lose the only home away from home he had, though well, he supposed it was his only home now.

And so he traveled exclusively to asteroid markets. Only ever indulged himself with TARDIS engine parts and tried to stay out of trouble as much as he could, though more often than not, his ship had other ideas. And when that didn’t work, when the lack of sound inside his own mind became too deafening and he found himself going insane, he hunted down fixed points and played with fire.

It took months of travelling alone, of finding trouble even when he didn’t want to and inadvertently saving people before the pain caused from the war dulled just enough for the Doctor to miss having a companion. And so, he set the TARDIS on randomizer, trusting his ship to know best, and prepared for another adventure.

London, England, Earth 

Year 2005.

The moment the Doctor walked out of the TARDIS, he knew something was wrong. There was an unfamiliar telepathic presence that he hadn’t expected to feel in 21st century London, and the presence was only getting stronger by the minute. He furrowed his eyes and took out his sonic screwdriver, adjusting the dials so that he could collect some readings. The TARDIS had landed on a fairly nondescript part of central London, busy streets surrounded by shops and restaurants on both sides. The Doctor followed the signal he had managed to intercept all the way to a clothing department, Henricks. He frowned, wondering how this one, seemingly ordinary shop was special enough for the foreign telepathic signature to be so strong, only for the sonic to generate another, much more narrowed down reading.

The Doctor’s blood ran cold.

Autons. He was dealing with autons. 

He took an involuntary step back as pieces started coming together. A clothing department that size, they would’ve hundreds of mannequins, both on display and in storage. There was no way he would be able to fight all of them off. He looked around, the streets seemed to be clearing, most of the shops having closed down for the day and made his decision. He was gonna have to blow up a building.

He gritted his teeth, but ran back to the TARDIS anyway. He wasn’t fond of physical violence in this regeneration, and explosions or firearms were almost intolerable. It was another side effect of the war, he supposed, but he couldn’t think of any other solution that would stop all those autons from escaping and creating havoc in the streets. 

By the time the Doctor had assembled the bomb, the streets outside the store were fairly deserted. He decided to check inside the store too, just to make sure all the employees were out. He had just reached the basement when he started hearing sounds, and cursed when he realized he had run out of time. The door to the electrician’s room was locked, but Doctor doubted that a closed door would’ve kept the autons out. Unsurprisingly, when he did sonic the door open, the electrician was there, slumped against his chair, strangled to death.

The doctor grimaced, not even an hour into another adventure and someone had already died. 

He sighed, and was already on his way back up to find the most effective place that would collapse the entire building when he heard it-

“-the joke. Who’s idea was this? Is it Derek’s? Is it? Derek, is that you?”

The Doctor froze, words filtering out of his ears even as he concentrated on the voice. On that very familiar, very lovely voice that was now tinged with fear.

_“The next time you meet me, I won’t know who you are.”_

He sucked in a surprised breath. He was supposed to meet her for the first time. Right here, right now. For an insane fraction of a moment, the Doctor regretted not checking out what his face looked like this time around, but then the panic in her voice registered in his suddenly snail-slow brain, and the Doctor gunned it towards where her voice had come from.

It was her. His golden girl. She was younger, and dressed like any other lower-middle class girl from the early 2000s would, and the ever present glow that surrounded her every time he had met her previously was missing, but she was still the most gorgeous sight the Doctor had seen in a long, long time. 

Also, she was surrounded by autons.

The first thing the Doctor did when he saw his sweetheart, was something he had wanted to do since the moment he met her.

He grabbed her hand.

“Run!” He said, and then immediately grinned like an absolute maniac.

He had met her, finally. A sweetheart he didn’t have to share with any other future regenerations of himself with. And he was holding her hand, finally, only having had to wait for about 450 years. It was worth it though. Her softer, smaller, hand fitting quite perfectly against his larger and more calloused one. A rather large part of him had managed to put her out of his mind during the war. In his darkest moments, he had managed to convince himself that she was nothing but a hallucination, a woman he made up to give himself an idea of a happy ending. That maybe she was just a by-product of his so desperately not wanting to be alone.

But no, she was real, and her hand was in his, and together, they were running from living plastic mannequins, and it was all so completely, incredibly, _fantastic._

He led her through the basement of Henriks as Autons chased after them. She was quiet the whole time though he could almost feel her curious gaze burning a hole in the back of his head. Her hand tightened in his every time one of the mannequins get a little too close for comfort, but he managed to push her into an open elevator without anyone of them laying a hand on her.

It was a shame when he had to let go of her hand to pull off one of the mannequin’s arms in order to close the elevator door, but he figured it could be of some use. He tossed it to her without a word.

“You pulled his arm off!” 

She really didn't know anything this time, did she? She really was oblivious to every part of his mad life. There was a part of him that was sad that the ever present affection was absent in her eyes now, but a much bigger part of him was just so relieved to see her.

He was also incredibly excited for this meeting. He could be as cryptic as he would like, and she’d have no clue, and he would have her so wrapped up in him with his half-truths and strange statements that by the time the autons were over and dealt with, she would be dying to come with him in the TARDIS. The rest of her boring life be damned.

“Yep. Plastic.” He agreed, and kept his statements as short as possible. He wondered if this was how her future self felt every time she met him. She knew everything about him while he knew next to nothing about her. Now, the roles had been somewhat reversed, and he was going to enjoy this as long as he possibly could.

“Very clever! Nice trick. Who were they then, students? Is this a student thing or what?”

“Why would they be students?”

A shadow of something that looked eerily similar to insecurity passed over her face before she frowned at him, “I don’t know.”

He didn’t like that expression much, “Well, you said it. Why students?”

She hesitated, then shook her head, “ ‘Cos to get that many people dressed up and being silly, they’ve got to be students.”

He grinned at her, brilliant as always, his sweetheart. “That makes sense. Well done.”

“Thanks.”

“They’re not students, though.”

“Whoever they are, when Wilson finds them, he’s gonna call the police.”

The bell to the elevator dinged, and the doors opened to the ground floor, “Whose Wilson?” The Doctor asked,

“The chief electrician.”

His chest tightened a little at the mention of the man he had found not ten minutes ago,

“Wilson’s dead.” He replied shortly, and then got off the lift.

“That’s not funny! That’s sick!” 

“Hold on, Mind your eyes.” He said.

“I’ve had enough of this now.” She huffed, then crossed her arms over her chest. She was adorable when she was mad, and the Doctor had to make an effort to keep the smile off of his face, “Who are you, then? Who’s that lot down there? Who are they?”

“They’re made of plastic. Living plastic creatures. They’re being controlled by a relay device, probably on the roof, which would be a great big problem if I didn’t have this.” He pulled out the small bomb from his jacket and gave it a shake, “So, I’m going to go up there and blow them up.”

She frowned, eyeing the bomb as if she half thought he was joking, “Okay. But, what about you?”

He blinked, “What about me?”

“You’re planning on blowing up the building, but you’ll still be in it.” She stated as if he was a child. He rolled his eyes, half annoyed at her patronizing tone and half wanting to kiss her for her concern,

“Pretty hard to kill, me. Now, you need to go home. Go on, go and have your lovely beans on toast. And don’t tell anyone about this, because if you do, you’ll get them killed.”

He darted back inside the elevator, but then stopped, remembering there was another incredibly important thing he was forgetting. He stepped back into view and smiled when he saw her still standing there, “I’m the Doctor, by the way. What’s your name?”

It was a moment centuries in making, even if she didn’t know it.

“Rose.”

The Doctor’s hand on the elevator door tightened in order to suppress the excitement he felt in just that one, single word, “Nice to meet you, Rose.” He winked at her, “Now, run for your life.”

\---

It was only when the Henrik’s building had blown up and he had barely gotten out of it alive, that the doctor realized 2 very important things:

One, he had told Rose to go back home, but he had no idea how to find her again.

Two, the plastic arm that might’ve helped him zero in on the signal that would’ve led him straight to the Nestene Consciousness was also with her.

He frowned before walking back to the TARDIS. His sonic was silent, detecting no other signals in the area, though the Doctor was sure it wouldn’t be long before the Nestene realized their plan had failed and activate more plastics. He needed to figure out a way to track that arm. Who knew where Rose had dropped that hunk of plastic.

It took a few hours for the Doctor to figure out how to trace an inactive signal, and then another hour to recalibrate the sonic so that he could follow the trail. He set the closest coordinates into the TARDIS and blinked in surprise when his ship landed right in front of the council estates.

His sonic buzzed, catching his attention before he could think too much and he followed the signal till he reached one of the apartment blocks. He hesitated before entering the building, pointing the sonic in front of every single door before the device buzzed in his hand at the very last flat on the third floor.

He stared at the readings of the sonic, there was definitely activated plastic inside that apartment. He could hear voices coming from the inside though, and neither of them sounded panicked. He crouched down to peer out of the cat flap, sonicing out the screws when he found it bolted closed,

And that’s exactly when Rose opened the door.

“What are you doing here?” He asked, even as he stood up so that she had to look up at him. She frowned,

“I live here.”

He blinked at her. At the council estates? “Well, what d’you do that for?”

“Cause I do.” She gave him a look, “I’m only home because somebody blew up my job.”

The doctor narrowed his eyes at her, “You still got that plastic arm with you?”

“No, I asked Mickey to chuck that out.”

“Whose Mickey?”

“My boyfriend.”

The Doctor frowned, “You have a boyfriend?”

Rose raised a challenging brow, “Why? Is that surprising?”

“A bit, yeah.” It wasn’t until the words were out of his mouth that the Doctor realized they could be misinterpreted into something insulting. He hadn’t meant it that way though. Just… out of all the problems he had experienced in his rather long life, a love triangle had never been one of them. This was new territory.

Rose scowled, but ignored his remark, instead grabbing his hand and pulling him into the flat, “You. Inside. Right now. I have so many questions about last night. And you’re going to answer all of them, is that clear?”

The Doctor gulped, equal parts intimidated and turned on at her no nonsense tone, but managed a nod.

“Rose?” Another voice called out from inside the flat, “Who is it?”

“It’s about last night. It’s about the inquiry. Give us ten minutes.”

“She deserves compensation!” The voice called out, but the Doctor ignored it, instead following Rose into the living room.

“Don’t mind the mess. Do you want a coffee?”

“Might as well, thanks.” The Doctor said, “Just milk.” He looked around the room even as he listened to Rose babble on nervously from the kitchen. There was a stack of entertainment magazines strewn over the coffee table and the Doctor flipped through them before his eyes landed on a novel much more to his taste. He skimmed through that too, before he noticed another stack of bills on the kitchen counter and picked them up,

“Rose Tyler.” That was her full name, and it rolled off his tongue in the most fantastic fashion. He grinned. He caught his reflection on a mirror down the hallway and ducked a little to check his new face,

He was tall this time. Taller than his seventh and eight body. A bit too old maybe for someone who looked as young as Rose, he supposed with a frown, though he could work with it. “Could’ve been worse. Look at the ears.” He mused. He could’ve gotten the horrible hair his 6th regeneration had gotten, though Rose hadn’t minded that body either. She hadn’t minded any of them, if he remembered correctly. He smiled. He could definitely work with this.

He looked back at Rose to find her still busy with tea and babbling about Wilson the electrician. He rolled his eyes and hunted for something else to occupy himself with. This body wasn’t good at staying still for too long, and the new and exciting presence of Rose Tyler wasn’t helping his excitement. He heard something rattle behind one of the horrendously pink couches and frowned,

“What’s that? You’ve got a cat, then?” He asked, but didn’t have to wait for a reply before the living plastic arm from last night jumped at him and started strangling his throat,

He watched, wide eyed as Rose came into the room with a tray of tea, “No. We did have, but now they’re just strays. They come in off the estate.” She turned to look at him, saw him getting choked to death on her couch, and promptly rolled her eyes, “I told Mickey to chuck that out. You’re all the same. Give the bloke a plastic hand. Anyway, I don’t even know your name. Doctor? What was it?”

The Doctor finally managed to pull the arm off of his neck and it promptly latched on to Rose instead. She screamed, and he rushed to pull it off of her, which ended up with both of them falling onto the coffee table and smashing it. He flinched, and brought his arms around her as much as he could to protect her from the stray glass. The plastic arm fell away, and before it could attack anyone again, the doctor deactivated it with his sonic.

“You okay?” He breathed out, arms still around her and her body still on top of his. It was a fairly compromising position now that the danger was gone, and he took a moment just to watch her get her bearings right,

“You broke my coffee table.” She accused rather weakly, and the Doctor scoffed,

“Well, maybe if you had helped me when that arm was choking me in the first place, none of this would’ve happened.”

“I thought you were pretending!”

“Pretending to get choked?” He asked her, looking down at her as if she’d lost her mind. Rose frowned at him,

“It’s what Mickey did last night!”

“Dunno how to tell you this, Rose Tyler, but your boyfriend sounds like an idiot.”

Rose scowled, but instead of replying, she shifted off of him to turn her attention to the plastic arm laying next to them. She picked it up gingerly, eyeing it carefully and the Doctor almost smiled when he saw her lips pout slightly in concentration.

“It’s alright now. I’ve stopped it.” He said softly, then nudged the fingers of the plastic arm, “There you go, you see? Armless.”

She glared at his (rather fantastic, if he did say so himself) pun, and brought the arm to whack him on the shoulder, “You think?”

“Ow!” It didn’t hurt, really, not even one bit, but it made Rose smile at him, so he was going to take it.

“What is going on though, Doctor? Really?” She asked once again, and the Doctor felt himself soften at her scared confusion. The sound of the hair dryer that had disguised all their commotion from the other person in the house stopped and the Doctor hesitated before holding out his hand to Rose,

“Come with me.”

Rose looked out at his hand for a moment, quietly contemplating her options. Her curiosity however, was much greater than her fear and she took his hand without a second prompt. They stood up and the Doctor guided her out of her flat without a word,

“I wasn’t lying when I told you last night they were living plastics.” He told her seriously as they walked down the building over to where his TARDIS was parked,

“But, how can that be, though? And why was it after me in the first place?”

The Doctor raised an amused eyebrow in her direction, “After you? It wasn’t after you at all.”

“It tried to kill me.” She stated, meeting his eyes flatly,

“Only because you got in the way. It was after me. Last night, in the shop, I was there, you blundered in. This morning, I was tracking it down, it was tracking me down. You just happened to be there both times. A bit jeopardy friendly, you are.”

Rose raised a brow at him, “You’re so full of it.” But he could tell she was trying not to smile,

“A bit, yeah.”

She shook her head, getting back on track, “But, all this plastic stuff. Who else knows about it?”

“No one.”

“What, you’re on your own?”

He stopped, looked at her for a moment. She met his eyes without any hesitation, and he could almost see the excitement building up behind those hazel orbs, “Why?” He asked her softly, “Want to come with me?”

She blinked, “To fight the living plastic?” She asked him, half wondering if he was mad and half wondering if she was.

“Yeah.”

“Sure.”

He looked at her affectionately enough that Rose blinked in surprise, “It might be dangerous.” He warned, taking half a step closer.

Rose’s heart sped up, anticipation and excitement warring in her in a way that had never happened in the last 19 years of her life. This was new. This was different. She couldn’t breathe with how much she was loving this. “A plastic hand tried to kill me just this morning. I think I got the dangerous part.”

The Doctor grinned, “Okay then, Rose Tyler. Allow me to introduce you to the real world.”

And so he did. He told her about Autons, about the Nestene Consciousness, about what they were and why they came to Earth. He told her about all the millions and billions and trillions of species that live out there in the space, and watched her listen to him in wide eyed wonder, trying to digest everything that he was saying as fast as she could,

“-and I mean, you lot, all you do is eat chips, go to bed, watch telly, while all the time underneath you, there is a war going on.”

She cut him off there with a shake of her head, “Okay hold on, so aliens are real. Blimey, I swear if it wasn’t for this morning, I would’ve thought you completely barmy.”

The Doctor grinned at her, “Might be a bit barmy, me. Doesn’t mean I’m lying though.”

She grinned back at him, “And where do you come into all of this then? Are you alien too?”

There was something in her voice that he couldn’t make out, and it made him a little nervous, “Yeah. Is that okay?”

“Yeah.” She nodded. They watched each other quietly for a moment, still holding hands. The Doctor smiled. She wasn’t letting go, he wasn’t sure if she even realized she was still holding it, but he wasn’t going to be the first one to pull away.

“So, where are we going then?” She asked, breaking their stare and the Doctor resumed walking,

“To the TARDIS. It’s my ship. If we want to stop those plastic creatures, we need to find out what’s controlling them and then cut off the signal.”

“So, it’s like radio control?”

The Doctor gave her an appreciative look, “No. Clever, but no. It’s thought control.”

“And this Nestene consciousness. That’s what’s controlling it?” The Doctor looked at her for a moment, then said;

“You know what, Rose Tyler?”

“What?”

“You’re brilliant.”

She blushed bright red at the unexpected compliment, and the Doctor grinned widely at her reaction. She shook her head,

“Break the signal, you said. How’re we going to do that?”

He wiggles the plastic arm in front of her, “I might be able to retrace the signal from this. But, we need to get back to the TARDIS.”

“But, what’s it all for in the end? I mean, the shop dummies? Is someone trying to take over Britain’s shops?”

“No.”

“No?”

“It’s not a price war. They want to overthrow the human race and destroy you.”

“With shop dummies?”

“It’s not just shop dummies, though. Think about it, Rose. Plastic all over the world. Every artificial thing, waiting to come alive. The shop window dummies, the phones, the wires, the cables-”

“-the breast implants.” Rose tried to joke, but she was starting to get a little scared. “But, why choose the Earth, then? What’ve we done?”

“Nothing. It loves you. You’ve got such a good planet. Lots of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air. Just perfect. It’s what the Nestene Consciousness needs. It’s food stock was destroyed in the war, all it’s protein plants rotted. So Earth, dinner!”

“And you’re going to stop it?”

“Yup.”

“How though? Who are you, Doctor? Really.”

They were right in front of the TARDIS now, but the Doctor turned to stand in front of Rose anyway. She was a curious little thing. A million questions, she had said, and she had asked almost as many. He smiled slightly down at her, and then reached down to grab her other hand too,

“Do you know what we were saying about the earth revolving?” He asked, and deliberately kept his voice hush, “It’s like when you were a kid. The first time they tell you the world’s turning and you just can’t believe it because everything looks like it’s standing still. I can feel it. The turn of the Earth, the ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, and the entire planet is hurtling around the sun at sixty seven thousand miles an hour, and I can feel it. We’re falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go-”

He did let go of her hands then. She wasn’t breathing, her eyes wide and him, the center of her attention. It was a heady feeling. He grinned at her, and then cupped her cheek gently, “That’s who I am. Now, you coming?”

He tilted his head towards the TARDIS, and she blinked back the daze that had surrounded her to see where he was motioning. She blinked again, “That’s a police box.”

“Looks like it.” The Doctor agreed glibly,

“But- that’s your ship? It’s so… small.”

The Doctor smirked, “I dunno about that. Why don’t you go and see the inside.”

Rose gave him a suspicious look, but did what he said anyway. He wasn’t at all surprised when the TARDIS opened under her hand, if there was someone in the entire universe who loved Rose Tyler as much as he did, it was his time ship. He watched her eyes widen as she stepped in through the doors. She came out in an instant, and without a word to him, started circling the TARDIS. The Doctor pursed his lips to stifle a laugh. This really was fun. Being the one who knew everything once again.

“But- but how?” Rose turned to look at him with wide eyes, “It’s like- like it’s bigger on the inside.”

The Doctor offered her his hand again, and she took it without a thought. He pulled her into the TARDIS who blinked her lights rapidly in her welcome. Rose jumped,

“What was that? Is everything okay with it?”

“Everything’s fine. She’s just happy to see you.” He assured her, but that seemed to shock her even more,

“She? Happy to see me?” She looked around, watched as the big pillar like structure in the middle brightened when her eyes landed on it, “What?”

“The TARDIS stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space. The ship is sentient. She’s alive, basically. And she likes you.”

“But, she doesn’t even know me.”

“Not true. The TARDIS can tell a bad person from a good person. She’s telepathic.”

Rose jerked, “What? She can read my mind?”

“Not exactly no. It’s like… she can get feelings. Impressions. What you like, dislike, what kind of a person you are. You can talk to her, and dispensing on how telepathic you are, she’ll talk to you back.”

“But, I’m human, though. I’m not telepathic.”

He shrugged, “Those two aren’t mutually exclusive. Telepathy isn’t a is or isn’t sort of an ability. It’s a spectrum. Like me, for example. I’m a touch telepath. But, at the same time, I don’t look into the minds of anyone I’m touching. That’s considered a violation of privacy. And honestly, sort of rude.”

He felt her hand in his tense, and waited with bated breath for her to pull away. He knew he was dumping too much on her too soon, but he was also so eager for her to know _everything_. So, that they could start travelling together as soon as possible. He tensed when she looked down at their hands, then looked up at him intently. He waited for her to say something, but then she nodded and let their hand hold continue,

“Okay.”

“Okay?” The Doctor blinked, “You believe me?”

“I just screamed something incredibly rude to you in my head. If you had been reading my thoughts, you’d have reacted. So, you aren’t reading my mind.”

He looked at her for a moment, astonished at this woman who seemed so infallible considering he had just up and turned her whole life upside down, “You’re taking in all this very well.” He observed. 

Rose grinned, “Not really, I'm freaking out terribly on the inside.” She then squeezed his hand and took a step closer, “But Doctor, you were right. For the past nineteen years, my life has only ever been chips and telly and a dead end job at a department’ store. And then you showed up, and suddenly there’s evil aliens, and telepathic ships, and _you._ It’s all just- It’s all-”

“Fantastic?” He finished for her with a smug smile. She grinned back,

“Fantastic.” She agreed.

He squeezed her hand before letting go and walking towards the console. He connected the plastic arm to the TARDIS and watched from his peripheral vision as Rose followed him, coming to stand next to him. He frowned when the screen attached to the time rotor fizzed and then promptly blanked out,

“What happened?”

“The signal’s too weak. Should’ve tried to get a head or something. This isn’t going to get us anywhere.”

Rose crossed her arms, “So, we’re going to have to wait for them to make more plastic dummies come alive?” She asked, chewing nervously on her lip. The Doctor sighed,

“I’ll try to work on this, but the chances are slim, yes.”

Rose opened her mouth to reply, but just then, her cellphone rang. Her eyes widened when she looked at the caller id, “It’s mom.” She told the Doctor, “She must be worried. Considering for all she knows I just let a stranger into the flat and now both of us are missing and the coffee table’s smashed to pieces.”

The Doctor rolled his eyes but nodded, “Go to her. I don’t fancy being labelled a kidnapper. This isn’t going to get anywhere until we get another lead anyway.”

She frowned, “You won’t go away, right?”

The Doctor scoffed, like hell he was leaving her behind now that he’d finally found her, “I won’t. Promise. Can’t really do anything till my sonic catches a new signal anyway.”

“Okay.” She hesitated before leaving, “I’ll see you later?”

“Yeah.”

The Doctor watched her leave, a part of him wanting to grab onto her hand and not let her go. But, that was silly. She wasn’t going to disappear this time. She had only gone to her mum’s. He’ll just wait for her here. Not like he could do anything else anyway.


	2. Episode 1: Rose [Part 2]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hullo!
> 
> Thank you so much for all the feedback in the last chapter. Sorry for taking so long to update. It's just, I'm currently working on at least 4 different WIPs, and now that this semester is almost over, I'm going to start working on an original work too. A girl's gotta eat, after all.
> 
> Also, I love how much love nine is getting! as much as the fourteen year old me crushed on David Tennant and his doctor, Eccleston's doctor just made me feel... safe? almost like a guardian angel? that makes no sense, i'm so sorry. he's just- he comes off very dependable and understanding and just- absolutely lovely. I love him.
> 
> Anyway, here's 6k to make up for it ;) HAPPY READING!!
> 
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When Rose finally walked back into her mother’s flat, she found Jackie pacing in the living room in front of the smashed coffee table, her fingers wringing around the cordless phone worryingly. Mickey was there too, standing a bit too still in the corner with his arms crossed tightly in front of his chest. They both looked up when they heard the door close behind her, and she smiled sheepishly in apology, knowing she’d had them worried,

“Oh! Rose, what happened?! I’ve been worried sick! You and that inquiry man just disappeared- and then the coffee table was broken-”

“I’m sorry, mom. There was just a bit of an accident. The guy tripped and fell into the table. Twisted his ankle and everything. I was just helping him to his car.”

Jackie frowned, “You were gone for awhile. I even called Mickey.”

Rose glanced at Mickey, who was still looking a bit weird. She frowned slightly at his too frozen grin and arched eyebrows but then shook her head, more important things to deal with right now than her boyfriend, “Poor bloke just parked his car too far off. Everything’s fine, mum.”

“Well, we need to get a new coffee table now so I don’t know how anything is fine.” Jackie retorted, huffing, “Did he at least offer to pay for the damages?”

“Er- no?”

Her mum rolled her eyes then, “Typical bloke, then. You really should think about getting that job at the butcher’s sweetheart.”

Rose made a face at the suggestion but said nothing, letting her mother retreat back into her bedroom. She turned to Mickey, a large part of her brain still trying to digest everything she had learned about the Doctor and his life and the past half hour,

“You okay? You look a bit weird.”

“I’m fine.” Mickey replied, his tone a bit too overly jovial, then abruptly said, “Let’s go out for lunch.”

Rose hesitated, thinking about the TARDIS and the man inside waiting for her, “Actually Mickey, there is something I need to-”

“We should go get Lunch.” He said, and grabbed her hoodie covered arm and pretty much dragged her out of the apartment,

“Okay, what’s going on with you, Mickey, seriously?” He didn’t stop till they were out of the building and in the parking lot. Rose scowled, and then dug her heels hard into the pavement to step them from moving, “Mickey, stop. I said I didn’t want to go for lunch.”

“I just want to talk to you, babe, sweetheart, sugar, babe.” Rose blinked. Was he-

“What are you doing that for? What do you want to talk about?”

Mickey turned around to face her, his grin hard and creepy even as his vacant eyes bore into hers, “About the Doctor.”

Rose stiffened, “I didn’t tell you about the Doctor.” She tried to pull her arm away from his grip, but it was too strong. Only now she was realising that his hold on her was all wrong. All hard and no give. Like-

Like plastic.

Rose’s eyes widened, and she tried to pull harder. It was so clear to see now. He was plastic. All of him. This wasn’t Mickey.

“Let me go-” She struggled against him even as plastic Mickey’s grin took a sinister twist,

“First tell me what the Doctor has planned, little girl.” He stepped closer and Rose struggled to put some distance between them. It wasn’t working though. She was being dragged into Mickey’s car no matter how much of a fight she put up, and she was about to scream, not caring anymore about making a scene, when suddenly, plastic Mickey got hit in the head with a rather large rock, denting his face. Rose stared at the head with a weird sort of fascination, when the Doctor’s voice entered her mind,

“I believe the lady told you to let her go.” He sounded mad, but all Rose could feel was relief. She turned to look at him, a wide grin on her face that he reciprocated as soon as their eyes met.

Plastic Mickey let go of her hand, and immediately, Rose ran to stand next to The Doctor,

“Ah, gotcha!” Plastic Mickey said, staring at the Doctor. Rose watched as his plastic head absorbed the rock that had created the dent. Watched as his skull smoothed out once again. In the next moment, Mickey spit out the rock from his mouth, “Anyway.” He said,

And suddenly, his arms weren’t arms anymore, but huge slabs of heavy plastic. She yelped in surprise and got out of his range of motion even as the Doctor faced him head on, managing to grab and pull out his face. The image made Rose a little queasy, but she managed to keep her breakfast in.

“Don’t think that’s going to stop me.” The head muttered darkly even as his body started moving again, and Rose didn’t wait, she grabbed hold of the Doctor’s leather jacket and pulled him away towards the TARDIS,

“Come on, Doctor!” She shouted and together, they ran towards his ship. She closed the doors behind them both when they had entered and placed her entire weight against them,

“What if it follows us in?” She asked him, breathing heavily, more from fright and adrenaline than anything else,

“The assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn’t get through that door. And trust me, they’ve tried. Now, quiet for a minute.”

The Doctor attached the head to the console, then turned to Rose with a grin, “The hand wasn’t good enough. Signal too weak. But, the head’s perfect. I can trace the signal now.” He expected her to grin back widely, just like she had a few minutes ago, but she was staring at the head in horror,

“Did they kill him? Mickey? Did they kill Mickey? Is he dead?” She asked, voice a little thick,

The Doctor blinked, “Oh. Dunno. Didn’t think of that.”

“Didn’t think of that? Doctor, that’s my boyfriend. You pulled off his head!”

“Well, what about you? You say he’s your boyfriend, didn’t even notice when he was plastic.”

Rose scoffed, “Well, excuse me for being a bit distracted by other things!” She retorted,

“What other things?”

“You!” Rose answered, and then promptly blushed when he raised a brow, a smirk tugging on his lips, “Shut up.” She turned away, and then her eyes widened for a whole another reason, “Doctor, the head’s melting.”

“Melting?” The Doctor turned around to the console and then panicked, “Oh no, no no.” Rose watched him press buttons and pull levers, a little fascinated as he danced around the console,

“What are you doing?”

“Following the signal. It’s fading. Wait a minute, I’ve got it.” She yelped a little when the TARDIS shuddered, and quickly wrapped her arms around one of the corals so that she wouldn’t be thrown off balance. In the next moment, the ship settled again, and she watched the Doctor get out, hesitating only for a second before following him,

“I lost the signal. I got so close.” The Doctor’s said, but Rose couldn’t pay too much attention to him, not when they had basically  _ moved. _

“We aren’t at the estates anymore.” She mumbled, awed.

“No, we’re not.” The Doctor confirms, then gives her a little grin. She blinks at him,

“Does she fly?”

The Doctor shrugged, as if they were talking about the weather and not  _ an actual flying spaceship,  _ “Disappears there, reappears here. It’s all very science-y and complicated.”

“But, if we’re somewhere else, then what about the plastic body? That thing was still moving.”

“Melted with the head, of course. Now, are you gonna twitter on about all night, or are you gonna help me save the life of every stupid ape blundering on top of this planet?”

Rose frowned a little at his sass, but instead of retorting childishly, just rolled her eyes, “And how’re we going to do that?”

The Doctor pulled out a test tube filled with bright blue liquid from inside his leather jacket, “Anti-plastic!” He announced. Rose gave him a slightly dubious look,

“Anti-plastic?”

“Anti-plastic!” The Doctor confirmed, then turned around to examine their surroundings, “But first, I’ve got to find it. How can you find something that big in a city so small?”

“Hide what?” Rose asked, even as she started looking too, though she had no idea what for.

“The transmitter.” The Doctor replied, then casually took Rose’s hand as he began walking, “The Consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal.”

“What’s it look like?” Rose asked even as she looked down at their joined hands. She wondered why it was so comfortable to touch him. To hold his hand, to clutch at his sleeve, to tug at his jacket. Wondered why a strange alien who travelled in a spaceship felt so familiar to her? Experimentally, she tightened her grip, and was rewarded when he squeezed back reassuringly,

“Like a transmitter.” He replied, as if they weren’t having an entirely different conversation through their hands. She brought her focus back to the matter at hand, “Round and massive. Slap bang in the middle of London. A huge metal circular structure, like a dish-”

Rose didn’t have to look around for even half a moment before her eyes caught on to the London Eye. Huge, Circular, Slap bang in the middle of London. She pursed her lips tight in order to hide her smile, and watched for a moment as the Doctor looked around, his eyes passing by the landmark without a second glance even as he got more and more agitated by the second,

“-like a wheel. Close to where we’re standing. Must be completely invisible.”

He turned to look at her, only she was focusing on something over his shoulder. He frowned, “What?”

She nodded her chin in his direction and he turned around to see what she found so fascinating. It was just good ol’ regular early 21st century London though, and his frown deepened, “What?” He asked again, a little sharper.

She still didn’t say a word, only nodded back, and frustrated he did as she asked and looked behind him again. Seriously, what was with this woman? “What is it? What?”

“The London Eye, Doctor!” She retorted, more amused than exasperated,

He blinked, then turned back around the third time, and really, there it was. The most obvious thing in all of time and space. He turned back to look at Rose with a brilliant smile. He knew she was brilliant. And she kept proving it to him with every opportunity she got anyway.

“Fantastic!” He took her hand before she could even take a breath, and then ran off towards the London Eye to save the world yet again.

It was different this time though. He could feel it. Not because it had been a while since he had had a companion, and not because this was his life quite firmly post-war. But, because it was Rose. Her hand in his didn’t just feel like any other companions. Her laugh, as it twined and mingled with his was a sound nothing like he had ever heard before. She was special. He would’ve known even if this was the first time he’d ever met her. She was important. To the world and the universe and to him. 

The Doctor and Rose came to a halt at the foot of the Eye, and he squeezed her hand once to bring her attention to him, let alone that she hadn’t been able to think of anything  _ but  _ him since the moment he showed up in her life,

“Okay, so we’ve found the transmitter. The consciousness must be somewhere underneath.”

They looked around for a moment before Rose tugged him over to the manhole at the foot of the wall she was looking over, 

“What about down there?” She asked, tilting her face up to look at him. He smiled down at her,

“Looks good to me.”

There was a huge, orange mass of  _ something  _ down in the underground of the manhole. Rose had no idea how to properly describe it, or if she tried, how to make it make any sense. She looked around the dark and damp chamber, taking in the chains and rails and solid concrete. 

“There it is. The Nestene Consciousness, that’s it. Inside the vat. A living, breathing, creature.” The Doctor whispered in her ear, his voice hushed but still a little awed. 

So, the bright orange goo of stuff was alive and alien? Rose blinked, it wasn’t what she had imagined, really, when she thought about fighting an alien invasion. But, she supposed he shouldn’t complain about things being simple.

“Okay then, tip in the anti-plastic and let’s go.” She shrugged, but the Doctor shook his head,

“I’m not here to kill it. I have to give it a chance.”

She watched him walk over to the giant, orange glomp, but didn’t follow him immediately. For the life of her she couldn’t figure out what this place could’ve been used for before the Nestene took over. She shook her head and made to follow him, but before she could, her eyes locked on to a familiar face, and then widened in surprise,

“Mickey!” She ran to him where he was crouched and chained. Absently, she listened to the Doctor talk to the Nestene, but most of her attention was on the boy in front of her. He appeared unharmed, thankfully. Head intact and all, and she sighed in relief,

“Oh Mickey! Thank God you’re okay!” She squatted next to him, then immediately recoiled a little at his body odour, “God, you stink!”

“The thing down there, Rose. The liquid! It can talk!”

She ignored him though, and instead turned to the Doctor, “Doctor! They kept him alive!”

The Doctor rolled his eyes, feeling unreasonably annoyed now that her attention was split between him and that buffoon of a boyfriend of hers, “Yes, well. That was always a possibility.”

“You knew that and you never said?”

He turned to look at the two of them for a minute. Watched Rose as she stood and glared at him in irritation, her posture straight and arms crossed over her chest. Watched her boyfriend cower behind her and smirked a little, “I dunno. You didn’t seem too worried. Too busy thinking about me, I suppose.”

He watched her blush a bright red, equally from embarrassment and anger, and couldn’t quite keep the cocky smile off of his face. There were more important matters to attend to than his supposed domestic future with Rose Tyler, but after everything he had lost in the war and after everything he had found by meeting this girl, he found it a little hard to be gracious to anyone who held a place in her heart which he was meant to occupy. He turned back to the consciousness before she could reply, and took a smug sort of pleasure when she huffed quietly instead of protesting and quietly shushed her boyfriend when he tried to speak,

“Am I addressing the consciousness? Thank you. If I might observe, you infiltrated this civilization by means of warped, shunt technology. So, may I suggest, with the greatest respect, that you shunt off?”

The plastic made some sort of a sound, but it must've not been english, because Rose couldn’t understand anything, whatever was said though, did make the Doctor incredibly angry,

“Oh, don’t give me that! It’s an invasion! Plain and simple. Don’t talk about constitutional rights!”

The plastic protested angrily, Rose didn’t need to understand what was being said to know that the argument was escalating beyond civil conversation, and her nerves heightened a little,

“I! Am! Talking!” The Doctor shouted, “This planet is just starting. These stupid little people have only just learnt how to walk, but they’re capable of so much more. I’m asking you on their behalf. Please- just go.”

The Doctor had known a civil conversation wasn’t going to work the moment he had entered the chamber, but he had still hoped. And he had still been surprised when out of nowhere, two autons appeared and restrained him. Somewhere behind him, Rose yelled out his name in alarm, but he was too busy trying to break free to look back at her. The autons searched his jacket pockets before he could protest, and the next thing he knew, they had the anti-plastic in their possession,

“That was just insurance! I wasn’t going to use it!” He heard Rose behind him protest loudly even as the auton’s grip around him tightened, “I’m not attacking you! I’m just here to help. I’m not your enemy, I swear, I’m not-”

The blob of orange grumbled angrily, cutting off whatever it was that the Doctor was going to say. Whatever it did say though, it made the Doctor pale,

“What do you mean?” The Doctor asked, for the first time to Rose, it looked like he might be a bit scared,

Just then, a door Rose hadn’t even noticed behind them slid open, revealing the TARDIS, and the rest of the color left the Doctor’s face as the plastic growled loudly,

“That’s not true! I should know. I was there. I fought in the war. It wasn’t my fault. I couldn’t save your world! I couldn’t save any of them.”

The unbearable guilt in his voice made Rose pause. Wonder what it was that weighed so heavily on him. Fought a war? Couldn’t save an entire  _ planet _ ? She shuddered just at the thought of it.

“Doctor-” She called out, but went ignored when the plastic growled again, “Doctor, what’s it doing?”

“It’s the TARDIS. The Nestene has identified its superior technology. It’s terrified. It’s going to the final base. It’s starting the invasion. Rose, just get out of here. Just run-”

But Rose knew she wasn’t going to. Lord knows, she had just met this man- this alien- just yesterday, and yet she couldn’t bear the thought of leaving him to fight his battles alone. She must have lost her marbles, but she had never met anyone like the Doctor before. He seemed to trust her implicitly even though he ought to know her just as well as she knew him, which wasn’t all that well at all.

She looked up at the TARDIS, then down where Mickey was still chained up. The entire world, it seemed, was shaking at its hinges, and she took a deep breath. The Doctor needed help. Mickey needed help. Her mum, her friends, the entire bloody earth. 

And she was the only one aware who could do something about it.

She looked around even as rubble fell down around them. There was a thick chain running down a wall, an axe very conveniently hanging from just a few feet beside it, and without another thought, Rose ran for it,

“Rose!” Mickey shouted behind her, but Rose ignored him. She knew what he would say. That there wouldn’t be anything she could do. That they should leave everything as it were and just gun it out. But, in the last twenty four hours Rose had seen things and done things she couldn’t have even imagined in her entire life, and all of it was because of that one man who was willing to give up his life to save entire bloody  _ planets.  _

“I’ve got no A levels,” She muttered, hacks at the chain with the axe, “No job. No future.”

She was not the kind of person who saved the world. She didn’t think she ever could be. But, there was something she  _ could _ do, She could save the man who did.

“But I can tell you what I have got- Jericho Street Junior School under 7s gymnastics team. I got the bronze.”

And with that, she swooped down on the chain, kicking the autons that had been holding the Doctor captive rather gracefully, if she did say so herself. The chain swung back, and before she knew it, she’s in the Doctor’s arms, with him grinning down manically at her, as if he hadn’t doubted her for a second, and just like before in the Doctor’s presence, with his confidence and his faith in her that she couldn’t possibly have earned, Rose felt like she can do  _ anything.  _

“Now, we’re in trouble.”

And really, it shouldn’t have been that sexy to hear him say those words in that rough northern accent of his, with his gaze squarely fixated on her grinning mouth.

The consciousness exploded then, breaking a mood that had no business surrounding them in that moment anyway, and together, they raced towards the TARDIS hand in hand, 

“What happened?” She gasped out, once back in the safety of the police box, unable to find any sympathy for the whimpering Mickey taking everything in with wide eyes where he was still crouched in the corner,

“The mannequins accidentally dropped the vial into the plastic when you ninja-kicked them.” The Doctor replied, still looking so infuriatingly smug, as if she’d done exactly what he had expected her to, by throwing every sensible caution into the wind and rescuing him in a very taarzan-esque move. She grinned back at him, the exhilaration making her feel almost dizzy with relief, “You just saved the planet earth, Rose Tyler.”

And she knew that wasn’t true. She would’ve been right useless without his help. But, she also knew he would’ve been right useless without hers. And well, that, she could live with.

“We did.” She nodded.

The Doctor smiled, a sort of tender affection in his eyes that had her taking a step closer towards him. She watched him work the console with an easy grace nobody would expect from a man who looked like him, and watched him open the door when they had ‘landed’.

Mickey scrambled out as soon as the doctor had the TARDIS doors opened, and Rose, feeling a sense of obligation seeing as the only reason he had gotten messed up in all this was because of her, followed him out. He looked terrified, and baffled and frozen, now huddled in the corner of an alley near the estates. Her phone rang, though, and seeing it was her mom, Rose picked it up, knowing she would get worried,

“Hey, mum.”

“Rose! Rose, don’t get out of the house! It’s not safe outside.”

Rose laughed at that. Not safe? Her mother didn’t even know half of it.

“I’m fine, mum. Don’t worry about it.” She didn’t bother listening to what else Jackie had to say before ending the call and rounding up on her boyfriend. 

“And you, fat load of good you were.” There was still humor in her voice. She couldn’t exactly expect Mickey to jump into the Doctor’s world as easily as she had. She was still having trouble figuring out exactly  _ why  _ she  _ wasn’t  _ freaking out.

The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS behind her, arms folded across his chest, “Nestene Consciousness?” He said cockily, snapped his figures, “Easy.”

She snorted, “You were useless in there,” She teased, feeling in equal amounts, lightheaded and exhausted, enlightened and so completely out of her depth, “You would’ve been dead if it weren’t for me.”

“Yes, I would’ve.” He took a deep breath, straightened slightly, “What do you say then?”

She blinked, “What?”

“Want to come with me? Keep me alive? Anywhere and everywhere in all of space?”

The offer was tempting. So very, very tempting. Nobody had ever thought Rose Tyler worthy enough to even encourage her through school, and yet, here was this man, willing to hand her the universe. Almost as if under a spell, she took a step forward-

Only, there was something latching on to her leg-

She looked down to see Mickey clinging to her foot- and God, was that image going to give her nightmares for days. He was looking at the Doctor as if he were something- something weird- a monster of some sort. Rose couldn't understand it. She thought the Doctor was absolutely brilliant.

“Don’t go, Rose. He’s an alien! He’s a thing!”

“Obviously, He’s not invited.” The Doctor sneered, looking very much offended for very valid reasons. Even Rose felt a bit miffed on his behalf, “What do you think? You could stay here and fill your life with work, and food and sleep, or you could go anywhere.”

Rose bit her lip, felt a tug at her pant sleeve and shut her eyes. She knew what she wanted her answer to be. And she also knew what it would have to be instead. She shook her head, felt regret pool into her belly like acid even as she said the words,

“Yeah, I can’t. I- um. I’ve got to find mum and uh… someone’s going to have to look after this stupid lump.” She patted Mickey’s head, who at the moment, really was reminding her more of a dog than an actual boyfriend, “So-”

The Doctor looked at her blankly for a moment, his face a mask so flawless, she had no idea what he was feeling. He gulped, looked away, and looked a little heartbroken when his eyes met hers next,

“Okay. See you around.”

\---

Paris, France, 1890. Why the TARDIS had brought the Doctor to the top of the Eiffel tower, he had no idea. It was late enough in the night that there was no one there on top of the platform except him. It would’ve been quite romantic except for the fact that he was alone, and had quite possibly accidentally messed up timelines enough to get rejected by the loves of his life.

Five hundred years he waited to meet his Sweetheart, and then ended up losing her before really getting to keep her in the first place. Typical. 

He sighed, leaned up against the railing to look down at the sparkling city lights below him. The 1800s were one of the Doctor’s favorite times to visit the past, just because they were so architecturally intricate. It was before sharp, shiny and modern became a trend all over Earth, and the humans broke down complex craftsmanship in favor of skyscrapers. The lights weren’t so overpowering and the pollution so dense that he couldn’t see the multitudes of stars above him, but the lit orange lamps still cast a pretty outline of the city below him. 

Maybe the time and place was TARDIS’ way of trying to placate him, improve his mood and heal his pretty fantastically bruised hearts a little, but all it did was make the Doctor wish he had been able to come here with Rose at least once, and that just made his already aching chest ache a little bit more.

Rose Tyler. Nineteen year old girl from the estates with no A levels, no job, no future, and yet still the most brilliant thing the Doctor had ever laid eyes on. He had offered her everything that he was on a silver platter and she had picked a rather pathetic excuse of a human boy over  _ him _ . 

He wondered where he had gone wrong?

He closed his eyes shut, inhaled the crisp, fresh air as cold wind blew through the air. He didn’t  _ get  _ cold, but he could tell from the drop in temperature, that the TARDIS had landed smack dab in the middle of fall. The air smelled of pine, and crushed leaves, and fireplaces and-

And well, time. 

He stiffened, then whirled around when footsteps echoed behind him, somehow surprised but also not to see Rose right there. She was the future version of the girl he had left behind not ten minutes ago, the Doctor could tell with half a glance. This Rose  _ glowed  _ with something ethereal that didn’t surround his Rose at the moment. This Rose’s hair was a little longer, a little darker, her clothing very clearly from the future. And yet, when she tilted her head and smiled up at him, tongue peeking out a little at the corner of her lips, he had no doubt they were one and the same woman.

“Rose Tyler.” He breathed, filling a million or so emotions just looking at her. Her grin brightened further, and she walked closer to him,

“I don’t think I said it when we first met.” She murmured softly, walked closer till they were only arms length apart, “It is very nice to meet you, Doctor.”

The Doctor narrowed his eyes, “Why do you look at me like that?”

She blinked, confused, “Like what?”

He clenched his jaw, straightened a little, tensed as if preparing himself for a blow. “I’m in love with you. This you. My you. And you very clearly love someone else. You gave up all of space and time for that- that  _ Mickey Smith. _ ” He gulped, the words felt like chalk in his mouth, “So, why do you look at me like you love me too?”

Rose’s eyes were like honey. Rich and gold and viscous in their softness. As if the colour would spill if she looked away from him for even a moment. 

“Doctor-”

“I don’t-” He shook his head, “I’ve loved you for centuries. For lifetimes. I’ve loved you longer than I’ve lived. And for so long, I’ve hoped. And now, I’ve met you, and you don’t want to come-”

“I do, though.” She interrupted him, quickly. This was quite possibly the first time he had seen this Rose lose her composure. She looked a bit desperate in the moment. Like she was just itching to move closer. “I do want to come.” She said, “I do love you.”

“You said no.” He reminded her, the fact that she was here right in that moment already proved that she  _ did  _ travel with him, but time was complicated. Timelines twisted and turned and overlapped all the time, “I asked you and you said no.”

“And I regretted it not even a moment after.” She pleaded. She bit her lip, offered her hand, palm up,

“What?”

“Hold my hand.”

“I thought I wasn’t supposed to touch you.”

“That- that ship has sailed, I think.” She still looked nervous. So different from the confident, glowing Goddess he had met in his previous lives, yet still just as lovely. He hesitated before raising his hand, but he placed it squarely over hers-

-and then the world stopped.

“You know how you said? About the earth revolving? That you can feel it turn? So can I.” Rose told him, her voice hushed, spellbounding, “The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, and the entire planet is hurtling around the sun and the both of us can  _ feel  _ it. We’re falling through space, clinging to the skin of this tiny world, and I can feel all of it, except for when I hold you hand-”

She let go, and the earth started spinning again, but the Doctor knew that time hadn’t stopped. No, in that moment, with her hand in his, he just hadn’t been able to feel it. Hadn’t been able to feel anything  _ but  _ her. All his senses, all his nerves, all his thoughts, and all of them had been focused on her. But, that only really happened when-

“Bonded.” He rasped out, eyes wide and staring at her unblinkingly, “We’re bonded. Married.”

“Yes.”

Oh.  _ Oh. _

The Doctor was sure his cheeks were redder than a firetruck,

“Why didn’t you ever say?”

“Because I didn’t want you to find out.” She sighed, “Didn’t want you to marry me just because you knew you  _ were  _ going to marry me. That’s one aspect of the causal loop I want no part of.”

“That’s-” He huffed, shook his head even as he tried to temper his ridiculously dopey grin, “That doesn’t make any sense. Rose, I would’ve fallen in love with you anyway. From the moment I met you, it was inevitable.”

She softened, and now that there weren’t any invisible boundaries separating them, she walked closer to loop her arms around his shoulders, pulling him into a hug. “That might be one of the sweetest things you’ve ever said to me.” She mumbled into his leather jacket, and the Doctor grinned, wrapping his arms around her, and enjoyed the world stilling around him in her embrace.

Wife. She was his  _ wife. _

“So, wait-” He said, pulling away just enough to face her, hands still on her waist, “Wait. What about Mickey Smith?”

“What about him?” She asked him, innocent as ever, and as nice as that sounded-

“He’s your boyfriend.”

“Well, in 2008, sure. Not like I knew I would eventually end up marrying an immortal time lord when I was nineteen years old.”

“What? So, my Rose continues to date him?”

“I don’t see why not.” Rose replied nonchalantly, eyes on her fingers where they were playing with a bit of a loose thread at his shoulder seam. The Doctor scowled, and when she tilted her head to look at his face, she smiled coyly, “Unless you want to do something about that.”

The Doctor rolled his eyes, “Oh, I’ll do something about it, alright.” He muttered. 

She laughed, “You’re awfully confident for someone who hasn’t managed to get me aboard the darling TARDIS yet.” She teased.

And well, there was that, wasn’t there? In the end, she had said no.

“Did I mess up somewhere?” He asked her quietly, “Say or do something that made you change your mind?”

“No.” Rose shook her head, “No, Doctor. I promise, I regretted it the second you disappeared in that magical blue box of yours. All you need to do is go back and ask again.”

“Yeah?”

She smiled, “Yes.” Then pausing in thought for a second, she added, “Well, there was one thing you did forget to mention.”

“Oh? And what’s that?”

“Time. You forgot to tell me that it also travelled in time.”

The Doctor grinned, manic and wild and completely in love, “That is a mistake that I should correct immediately.”

She grinned back, reached up to press a lingering kiss on her cheek that made the Doctor close his eyes against the pressure. “Goodbye, my Doctor.” She mumbled,

And in the next moment, when the Doctor opened his eyes, his arms were empty.

\---

Rose was trying not to stare too longingly at that spot where the Doctor’s spaceship had stood not a second ago as she tried to usher Mickey back towards the estates. 

She had said no. A miracle of an opportunity to become something more than Rose Tyler of the Powell estates, and she had rejected it because she got scared. At this point, she didn’t deserve a life better than that of trashy telly and beans on toast.

She sighed, and was almost at the end of the street when she heard it again, that lovely wheezing sound she had only ever heard a couple of times, but that lifted her heart in a way nothing had ever managed to in her entire life. She whipped around, eyes wide as she saw the magnificent blue box appear in front of her with a gust of wind, making her hair go everywhere. 

“Rose-” She thought she heard Mickey calling from behind her somewhere, but the world could’ve been ending just then (twice in the same day, as it were) and she wouldn’t have noticed.

The Doctor peaked out from the front door. Grinned cockily when he saw the expression on her face,

“By the way, did I mention? It also travels in time.”

The TARDIS could’ve just been a London-hopper for all she cared right then. Rose  _ jumped  _ at the second chance.

She turned around to give Mickey a half-hearted grimace, “I’m so sorry.” She told him even though she wasn’t not really.”

“What? Rose, for what?”

She didn’t hear him, was already walking towards the Doctor,

“Tell mum not to worry, okay?” She called out, and then, without a word, turned and ran towards the TARDIS, towards all of time and space, and towards the man who had believed in her when the entire world seemed to have given up on her.

She ran towards the rest of her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, i did some research on autons and the nestene consiouness considering i haven't watched classic who yet, and found out that they're a hive mind. So, even though Rose didn't visit Clive with Mickey or really talked at all about the Doctor with him, plastic!Mickey still knew that she knew about the doctor because all autons share the same conciousness. 
> 
> Just in case any one was confused how plastic!Mickey knew to go after Rose.
> 
> other than that, this is the Rose episode done. Like I said last time, I won't be going through episodes by series, or the next episode may or may not be the end of the world *shurgs* who knows?
> 
> As always, kudos and comments are always, always appreciated! Thank you for reading.
> 
> If you want to know when I update, or just like me as a person, you can follow me on:  
> twitter: [@ymnfilter](https://twitter.com/ymnfilter)  
> tumblr: [@ymnfilter](https://ymnfilter.tumblr.com/)


	3. Episode 2: New Earth [Part 1]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for all the feedback and kudos for the last update! You were all so wonderful <3
> 
> this is the start of the second episode which will be a 3 parter. i hope you enjoy it ;)
> 
> as always, if you want to talk to me or read some of my other works, you can always follow me on:
> 
> tumblr: [@ymnfilter](https://ymnfilter.tumblr.com)  
> twitter: [@ymnfilter](https://twitter.com/ymnfilter)
> 
> HAPPY READING!

The Doctor watched Rose come running into the TARDIS, his smile stretching as wide as hers, and turned to the console as the door shut behind her,

“Right then, Rose Tyler, you tell me, where do you want to go? Backwards or forwards in time, in all of space. What’s it going to be?”

She bit her lip. “Future. I want to see the future.”

“Earth?” He asked, raising a challenging brow. She grinned, met it with one of her own,

“Impress me, Doctor.” 

The Doctor smiled at the cheek, “As you wish.” He spun, danced around the console with movements at the same time so intricate and deliberate, Rose couldn’t help but be fascinated,

The TARDIS landed, and the Doctor looked at her with a cocky smirk in place, “Ten thousand years in the future. Step outside, it’s the year 12005, the New Roman Empire.”

He sounded so smug then, Rose couldn’t help but tease him. It didn’t matter how much the idea of the New Roman Empire fascinated her, she crossed her arms and scoffed, “You think you’re  _ so _ impressive.”

He pouted, there was no better word for it, but there was humor sparkling in those ice blue eyes, “I  _ am _ so impressive!”

“You wish!”

“Right then, you asked for it. I know exactly where to go.” Rose watched him rev up the engine, pump the levers furiously enough that the TARDIS shook violently, and Rose grabbed hold of one of the corals with a squeak, “Hold on!”

“Oh that’s nice. Couldn’t tell before.”

“Cheeky Rose Tyler.” He chided. But came over when the TARDIS stopped, “Come along now.”

“Where are we?” Rose asked, “What’s out there?”

The Doctor walked over to the door, but stood aside and motioned for her to open the door instead, “Brand new world out there, Rose. Brand new sky. Why don’t you go and see?”

Rose gave him a giddy smile, and then ran over to the door, pulling open the door and stepping out into… grass.

She looked around, took in the flying cars and the elegant skyscrapers. The open fields around them and the clear sky above. “Oh wow.” 

“It’s the year five billion and twenty three. We’re in the galaxy M87, and this… this is the New Earth.”

“New Earth?” Rose asked, looked at him questioningly, “What happened to the old Earth?”

“Oh it burned.” He said casually, laughing a little when Rose looked up at him with wide eyes, “Don’t worry. The planet was inhabited by that time. The humans had already travelled all over the galaxy by that point. There was an entire viewing for it. Maybe I’ll take you to watch someday.” He mused,

“What? Take me to watch my planet burn?” Rose asked, couldn’t help but be amused. Her eyes keep straying to the new world around her, taking in every little detail, and feeling giddy with it all with every moment. She sniffed, there was something sweet in the air, sweet and fresh and sharp, “What is it that I’m smelling?” 

“Ah!” The Doctor grinned, bent down to pluck out a bit of grass from beneath them, “That would be apple grass.”

“Apple grass!” Her smile was delighted, and the Doctor felt his hearts warm a bit when she clutched the sleeve of his jacket in her excitement, “Oh, I’m going to love it. I can just tell. Travelling with you, I’m going to absolutely love it.”

He smiled down at her, lifted a hand to tuck some strands of her windblown hair behind her ear, 

“Me too.”

She grinned at him, then turned back to stare at the view in front of them again. One of the flying cars zoomed past them a little too close and Rose squealed, ducking down even as the Doctor laughed at her reaction,

“Come on, it’s still fairly early in the morning. Bet the farmer’s markets are still open.”

“The farmer’s market?” Rose asked, even as she followed him down the hills. She thought she heard something click behind her, and turned her head, but except for the TARDIS, she couldn’t see anything out of place.

“Oh yeah. Brand new planet, brand new culture. The world’s changed a lot in a couple of billion years.” The Doctor told her and as they walked closer to the city, Rose could see stalls and tents erected near the outskirts. She gripped the Doctor’s hand in hers tighter as they neared the market and the buzz of noise increased to people haggling over prices and calling customers over to their shops. She had been about to race up there, ready to immerse herself in with the rest of the people when she stopped suddenly, her eyes going wide,

“They’re  _ cats _ !” She whisper-shouted at the Doctor, her eyes still fixated on all the cat-people hybrids that were milling around and mingling with the rest of the humans. The Doctor looked down at her, an amused brow raised high on his forehead,

“Now, Rose Tyler, don’t stare. Think about what you look like to them. All pink and yellow ape.” He didn’t wait for her to take that in, just pulled her along to one of the shops nearest to them, greeting the cat-person standing behind what looked like an all natural plant based smoothie stand with a wide grin,

“Hey there. We’ll get two of those banana-parotica smoothies please.” He motioned for the cups filled with a very pretty lavender colored drink, exchanging it for a metal stick of some kind and despite everything, Rose found herself curious. She took the smoothie from the Doctor, sniffing it experimentally before taking a sip,

She could taste the banana, obviously, but apart from that, there was another flavor, something sweeter but with more of a kick. It was gorgeous. She blinked, stared at the drink before taking another, larger sip,

“You like it?” The Doctor asked, his own drink untouched till then.

“It’s amazing.” Rose nodded, “What did you call it? Parotica?”

“Yeah. Looks a bit like an eggplant, but it’s white on the outside, and purple when you cut in. A lot softer too, but it’s too overpowering to eat on it’s own.”

They walked away from the stall, taking a stroll to check out a few other shops. The Doctor pointed out to her the rest of his favorites, getting them a sample or two of whatever he thought she might like. Fruits, sweet mini pies, jam filled muffins, something that looked a lot like ice cream but wasn’t at all sweet. It was surprisingly easy to get used to the cat people, and before long, Rose found herself getting lost on good food and handmade crafts and the feel of the Doctor’s leather jacket against her temple where she was leaning her head on his shoulder. Still, every now and then, she would here a click, would turn around only to find nothing out of ordinary. It was disconcerting, but the Doctor didn’t seem to be noticing anything. She shook her head, brought her attention back to where the Doctor was pointing out a store selling souvenirs for the local tourists,

“That says New New York.” She said, pointing out the racks of t-shirts displayed in the front. The Doctor nodded,

“Well, yeah. This is New Earth, the city of New New York.”

“Oh, come on!” She snorted, not believing a word. The Doctor winked, gave her a cheeky grin,

“It is!” He insisted, “Okay, so year five billion, I said, didn’t I? The sun expanded, the earth getting roasted-”

“Which you promised to take to me to see.”

“It’s a date.” He promised, squeezing her hand once. Rose flushed, but managed a fairly nonchalant hum. His smug grin in response assured her she had managed to fool absolutely no one. He took pity on her though, and continued as if she hadn’t interrupted, “So, anyway, the planet’s gone, all rocks and dust, but the human race lives on. Spreads across the stars. Soon as the earth burns up, oh yeah, they get nostalgic. Big revival moment, and they find this place! Same size as earth, same air, same orbit, it’s fantastic!”

“And they name it New, New York?”

“Technically, it’s the fifteenth New York since the original, so that makes it New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York.”

Rose looked up at him, smiling. He looked down at her with a raised brow,

“What?”

“Just- Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For coming back for me.” His ice blue eyes warmed a bit at her words, and the Doctor pulled away his hand from hers to wrap his arm around her shoulders instead, pulling her to his side.

“Of course.” He didn’t say then, not out loud, but he made a promise to her in that moment. He promised to always come for her, no matter where she was. And it didn’t matter if she didn’t know of it, what mattered was that he would never break it.

Just then, the Doctor felt a telepathic nudge against his shields, and he paused, brows furrowing as he examined the other presence. Somewhere in his trans dimensional pocket, the same telepathic signature left an impression on his psychic paper. He pulled out the leather bill, reading the note while feeling even more confused,

_ Ward 26, Please Come _

“-tor, Doctor!” Rose grabbed the sleeve of his jacket, tugging a little, and the Doctor came out of his head enough to realise she had been calling for him. She frowned a little in concern, but pointed towards the city anyway, “We gonna go visit the actual city of New New York? So good they named it twice?” She tried for a light, teasing smile, but it fell away when he didn’t smile back, instead looking back at the paper with a furrowed brow, “What is it?”

He showed her the billfold, and she read the words, not understanding what about then had suddenly turned him so serious, “What’s that?”

“It’s a psychic paper.” He explained, looking around, “You show it to someone and they will read on it whatever you want it to. Comes in handy when you want to crash a party. You can also use it to send someone a message.”

“And…someone wants you to go to Ward 26?” She asked hesitantly, taking in everything he was saying. The psychic paper sounded to her more like a magic mind trick than anything else, but it was hardly the most unbelievable thing she had witnessed in the past twenty four hours.

“That’s right.”

“Ward 26 of what though?”

“Well, we can only assume they mean that building over there.” The Doctor replied, pointing at the giant futuristic skyscraper back in the direction they had come from. “See that green moon there? That’s the universal symbol for hospitals. There’s only one in the entire city, and it’s on the outskirts. But, the transportation system is so good at this point in time, and the medicine so advanced, that it is more than enough.”

Rose hummed, looked down at the not-ice cream cone she had been eating, and after stuffing the rest of it in her mouth, she grabbed the Doctor’s free hand in hers, “Let’s go, then.”

He looked surprised at her response, then all of a sudden, a little enamored. He shook his head, huffed a little breath of laugh,

“Come along then, Rose Tyler. It’s time for an adventure.”

\---

The clicking sounds followed them back up the grasslands and towards the hospital, but with the both of them so focused on each other and the mystery behind the message on the psychic paper, neither of them noticed the small metal spider as it trailed after them, projecting a video feed directly towards the basement of the same hospital, where hidden and surrounded by machines, was a flap of skin and a hunched up clone built just to serve her.

“Human!” The clone hissed, excitement bubbling up unfamiliarly inside him at the sight of their new arrival, “She’s pure-blooded human!”

“Impossible!” His mistress' voice was angry, dripping with envy and repulsion, “ _ I’m _ the last pure-blooded human. Her face, chip. Show me her face.”

The skin gasped at the sight of the young woman, taking in her naturally youthful face and full lips, getting unreasonably jealous of the strong jaw when she herself had had her chin removed. She recognized that face. Had dreamt up ways to get revenge on that girl and that Doctor of hers for years now. Rose Tyler. Soon enough, she promised, that young, youthful, pure-blooded body would be hers. 

“She’s coming here, mistress!”

“This is beyond coincidence. This is destiny.” The piece of skin smiled evilly, then immediately forced herself to stop, lest she get any lines, “Get her here, chip. I must have that body.”

“As you wish, mistress.” Chip obeyed, bowing a little despite his already hunched posture, and then trotted along towards the controls to fulfill his mistress’ orders.

\---

Rose’s eyes widened as she took in the large ceilings, the spacious hallways and the hover wheelchairs parked in one of the corners. Despite being the only hospital in the city, the reception was sparsely populated. The lady speaking on the intercom being one of the only voices loud enough to be heard. There were nurses walking across who were actually nurses. So was most of the rest of the staff.

“Oh, guess they don’t have a little shop!” The Doctor said, pointing out the sparsely decorated reception as he walked across to the elevators, “Love a little shop, me.” 

Rose looked over just as the Doctor entered the lift, “Ward 26.” He said out loud.

The reception floor was huge. All clean lines and white walls and glass partitions. All the staff and nurses seemed to be the same cat-person species Rose had met earlier, and while she had gotten better at not gawking, it was still incredibly distracting.. 

“Rose!” The Doctor called, and she turned just as the elevator doors began to close. 

“Hold on!” She sprinted, but didn’t quite make it before they closed and huffed.

“Oh, too late. I’m going up.” He yelled,

“That’s okay. There’s another lift.” She called out, pressing the call button repeatedly, knowing it didn’t really make the elevator come any faster.

“Ward 26!” The Doctor reminded her, his voice getting more and more distant by the second, “And mind the disinfectant!”

“Mind the what?” She asked out loud, confused. But, the next time the Doctor spoke, his voice was garbled at best,

“The what?” She asked again, but had no time to try and listen when the elevator arrived. 

She got in, a little out of her depth when she realized there weren’t any buttons. The doors closed on their own, and remembering what the doctor had said, she called out loud, “Ward 26.” tacking on a ‘thanks’ just to be polite.

It took no time at all for Rose to figure out what the Doctor was talking about. As soon as the lift had started moving, she was doused with incredulous amounts of cold, stinging disinfectant, though, she had to admit, the heated air dryer afterwards did make her feel a lot cleaner after the long day she had had what with the autons and the time travelling. She had still been trying to tame her blown-wild hair when the door opened and she stepped out in-

-what looked suspiciously like a dirty cellar.

“The human child is clean.” She jumped at the nasally voice, recoiling a little in surprise when she saw who it belonged to. The creature was obviously humanoid, but the color and marks on his skin told her that he wasn’t exactly human. And the way he was looking at her was making Rose feel exceedingly uncomfortable. 

She looked around, but there was no sign of the Doctor, or a ward of any sort. All they were surrounded with were water damaged walls and broken pipes,

“Um, I’m looking for ward 26?” She asked politely. Her fingers wrenching the sleeves of her hoodie nervously.

“This way, human girl.” The man scurried away, and Rose, after a moment of hesitation, followed after. 

\---

The Doctor had to admit, he was getting a bit nervous. He had been on ward 26 for about ten minutes now, being led by one of the nurses who went by the name Sister Jatt, as she introduced him to patient after patient suffering from illnesses and infections that they shouldn’t have a cure to.

If that in itself wasn’t suspicious enough, Rose still hadn’t arrived, despite having taken an elevator right after him. That was probably making him more antsy than anything else. After all, it was year 5 billion. The elevators didn’t even have buttons, so you couldn’t really press the wrong one.

They passed by a bed holding an extremely fat man looking as though he was about to turn into stone. By his side stood a very primly dressed woman, who glared at the Doctor the moment she caught him looking,

“Excuse me!” She huffed indignantly, “Members of the public may only gaze upon the Duke of Manhattan with written permission from the senate of New New York.”

The Doctor ignored her without a word, instead turning his attention to the duke himself, “That’s petrifold regression, isn’t it?”

“I’m dying, sir. A lifetime of charity and abstinence, and it ends like this.”

“Any statements made by the duke of Manhattan may not be made public without official clearance.” The woman interrupted, but immediately returned her attention back to her charge when the duke gasped in pain. The woman, this time, turned her glare to the nurse, “Sister Jatt! Some privacy, please!”

Sister Jatt lead the Doctor away, though his eyes lingered on the Duke, his gaze sympathetic and a little sad,

“He’ll be up in no time.” Sister Jatt reassured him, but the Doctor shook his head,

“I doubt it. Petrifold regression? That man is turning to stone. And there won’t be a cure for… oh, a thousand years?”

“Have faith in the sisterhood.” The Doctor frowned at the sister’s wording, her assurances sounding a little too cult-ish. He was about to question her further when she cut him off, “Now, is there really no one you recognise? It’s rather unusual to visit without knowing the patient.”

The Doctor looked around, taking account of every person in the room but not recognising anyone. That in and of itself wasn’t all that unusual however. It wouldn’t be the first time the Doctor would meet someone out of order, and psychic paper messages could be a fickle thing. Never know at what time they might end up. So, he concentrated on the telepathic signature he had felt in his head earlier. Looking around with senses far more sensitive than his superior eyesight, and smiling a little in triumph when one of the patients stood out like a beacon.

_ There _ , there was a large head floating in a gaseous filled tube of some sort,  _ and that was the Doctor’s man. _

“I think I’ve found him.”

They approached the alien slowly, seeing as his eyes were closed. For all intents and purposes, the head looked asleep. But, his mind was open to the Doctor, his mental presence warm and affectionate against the Doctor’s shields, as if he were a close friend. 

“Novice Hame, if I can leave this gentleman in your presence?” Sister Jatt asked the other nurse caring for the floating head.

“I’m afraid the face of Boe is asleep. That’s all he tends to do these days. Are you a friend? Or-”

“We’ve never met before.” The Doctor said absentmindedly, “But, I have a feeling we’re going to be good friends.”

As if hearing the words, the face of Boe’s weary lips rose up in a tired smile. The nurses looked at each other, surprised. The mental presence against the Doctor’s shields brightened a little, asking for permission to enter, and the Doctor lowered his shields amiably, 

_ "Hello, Old friend."  _ The voice is his head was old, weary, and incredibly warm. It made the Doctor relax without even realising,

_ "The face of Boe."  _ The Doctor greeted him similarly telepathically, " _ I’m afraid your message shot too further down in the past. We haven’t met yet." _

_ "Ah. That explains why your lovely wife isn’t by your side. The two of you are usually joined by the hips." _

That made the Doctor blush, and he cleared his throat, even as he remembered one of his previous concerns. He turned to Sister Jatt, “My… friend. Rose Tyler. I think she got a little lost. Could you ask at the reception?”

“Certainly, Sir.”

The telepathic presence in his mind dimmed a little, the face of Boe letting out a physically tired smile. It made the Doctor frown in concern, and he turned to Novice Hame, “What’s wrong with him?”

If possible, Novice Hame looked even more surprised at the question, “I’m so sorry. I thought you knew. The Face of Boe is dying.”

“Of what?”

“Old Age.” Novice Hame replied, placing a caring hand against the glass tube, “One thing that we cannot cure. He’s thousands of years old. Some say millions, Although, that’s impossible.”

The Doctor looked back at Boe, his brows furrowing as he concentrated on the presence in his mind. Warm, affectionate, he had realized. But, they shared something similar. He kneeled down in front of the glass, placed his own hand over the glass tube. The Face of Boe felt ancient in his mind, older than the Doctor himself, and despite his curiosity, the knowledge of a companion in the future who would stay by his side as long as the Face of Boe had seemed to, brought him a bit of relief.

“Oh no.” The Doctor said, a part of him remembering a conversation he had centuries ago in his first body with his wife, “I like impossible.”

\---

  
  


Rose thought she could handle aliens. She hadn’t freaked out much when she had first seen that large orange goop of the Nestene Consciousness, and sure, the cat people had caught her off guard a little, but she had adjusted quickly enough. She was open minded. She was adaptable. She could travel with the Doctor. 

She had been so  _ sure.  _

But now, in front of her, there was a tiny flap of skin with eyes and lips and nothing else. And it was quite honestly,  _ horrifying.  _

“Oh, hello! Rose darling!” The flap of skin chirped and Rose, unarmed and terrified, stumbled back, more than a little confused as to why that  _ thing  _ seemed to know who she was,

“Who-what are you?”

Rose was pretty sure if the skin had muscles, it would be frowning right about now. 

“Now, why would you pretend to not know me, Rose Tyler? If I recall right, you saved my life the last time we met.”

That didn’t make much sense. Rose didn’t know who this… woman? was. Had never met her before. And yet, she seemed to know exactly who Rose was. 

But then, something in her head clicked. 

Time Ship. Rose Tyler travelled in time now. If she had travelled five billion years in the future, and met with people whose grandparents hadn’t even been born yet during her time, what’s to say there wasn’t a future her who was out there meeting people from her past that the Rose she was now had yet to meet.

Time Travel. God, just the concept was giving her a headache.

She wondered what she should do. Should she pretend to know the thing? Should she run? Was she really as evil as she looked if Rose had saved her life?  _ Had  _ Rose actually saved her life or was the skin just lying in order to lull her into a false sense of security? Rose bit her lip, nervous. It was very clear that she was way out of her depth with this. 

“What do you want from me?” She asked,

“Oh, nothing much, dear. Just a little bit of company.” The flap of skin sighed dramatically, “You know, I’m all alone here-”

“What about him?” Rose cut her off, jerking her head towards the other alien in the room. But, the skin dismissed him with a roll of her eyes,

“Oh, that’s just Chip. He’s my pet. He’s not even a proper life-form. He’s a force grown clone. Chip sees to my physical needs.”

Rose wrinkled her nose at the thought, and was further disgusted when the clone let out a mesmerized sigh,

“I worship the mistress.” Chip agreed.

“Moisturize me. Moisturize me.” The skin ordered, and her clone, ever eager to please, picked up a canister and squirted her with it. The entire thing was getting a little too bizarre for Rose’s liking, and impatient to regroup with the Doctor, she tried to subtly take a few steps back. Only, just as she reached the doorway she had come in from, the machines on either side of the walls turned on, lasers coming off and binding her arms till she couldn’t take another step,

“Chip! Activate the psychograft!” Cassandra commanded, a smug grin taking over her face,

Rose tugged at the restraints, fear building up in her belly even as the bindings tightened. She watched helplessly as Chip ran over to one of the levers and pulled, bars of laser coming up from somewhere above her and surrounding her in a cage of light. “What are you doing?” She protested, 

“A lady’s moving on.” Cassandra claimed, calm as could be, though nothing could hide the menace in her tone, “It’s goodbye trampoline, and hello blondie!”

And that’s the last thing Rose heard before there was a painful pressure against her mind, squeezing a part of her so deep inside, she wasn’t sure if it even had a name. It was like her entire essence was being squished into silence, and then all at once, everything went dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> soooo... i bet none of you were expecting a new earth rewrite with nine! Hah!
> 
> (lowkey this is just yet another excuse to get him and rose to snog but shh)
> 
> i just- the Doctor knowing Rose before the autons changes a lot of things. He doesn't feel like he has to test her or make her understand his history, because to him she already does. so, no end of the earth, watching her planet burn first date for them. at least, not yet. 
> 
> i also felt like New Earth had a lot more potential in terms of sight seeing that we never explored because the entire episode was filmed in a hospital. so, i tried to do a bit of that in this.
> 
> i hope you liked it. As always, comments and kudos are always appreciated.   
> if you want to talk to me or read some of my other works, you can always follow me on:
> 
> tumblr: [@ymnfilter](https://ymnfilter.tumblr.com)  
> twitter: [@ymnfilter](https://twitter.com/ymnfilter)
> 
> have a nice day and stay safe!


	4. Episode 2: New Earth [Part 2]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello~~ thank you for all the feedback and kudos last chapter. i'm glad you're liking the way i'm taking this ;)
> 
> as always, if you want to know when i update, or if you have any prompts or suggestions, you can follow me on:
> 
> tumblr:[ @ymnfilter ](https://ymnfilter.tumblr.com)  
> twitter:[ @ymnfilter ](https://twitter.com/ymnfilter)
> 
> HAPPY READING!

The Doctor was regretting not having upgraded Rose’s phone with universal roaming. Even if he knew her phone number he wouldn’t have been able to contact her, and it had been almost half an hour since they had separated. He had decided to go down to the reception and wait for her there, half of his mind still on that vague prophecy Novice Hame had told him about the face of Boe,

_They say before his death, he will impart his great secret to only one like himself._

_He’ll talk to a wanderer. A man without a home._

_The lonely God._

It didn’t take a genius to figure out who the prophecy was talking about. And curiosity was eating at the Doctor. _A great secret? From a million year old being? A million old being who called the Doctor his friend and knew about his wife that the Doctor himself didn’t yet have?_

The Doctor wanted to know the secret now.

He turned around abruptly when he heard the elevator behind him ding, and then sighed in relief when Rose stepped off. She looked a little different. Her hoodie was gone, and the grey shirt she had on underneath had been pulled down a little too low, but the Doctor was too relieved to just see her safe and sound to care too much about the details,

“There you are!” He walked over, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her towards the staff elevators so that they didn’t have to go through the disinfectant again, “Come on, we’re going back to ward 26. There are a few patients I want to look over.”

But, Rose dug her heels into the marble floors, refusing to budge, “Sorry, but who are you?”

There was something about her voice, the accent stiff and a little fancy. He frowned,

“I’m the Doctor.” Getting worried now, he took a step closer, holding her by the shoulders and bending down to peer into her eyes, “Rose, are you alright?”

“The Doctor.” Rose breathed, a little distantly as if she were trying to remember. Her eyes widened, “Of course! You’re the Doctor. My- that is, incredibly surprising.”

“Rose- Where had you gone? You’re acti-” Before he could say anymore, she had leaned up on her tiptoes, closing the distance between their mouths, and in the next moment, the Doctor was snogging Rose Tyler.

His mind blanked, a million running thoughts stilling to a halt even as his hands trailed down her arms to hold on to her waist. She was a lot more forceful than he would’ve expected Rose to be, but blimey, he wasn’t complaining. Instead, he sighed, and forgetting any worry that he had ever had, drowned himself in her taste. 

They were breathless when she pulled away, just as abruptly as she had kissed him moments ago. The Doctor stared, mouth open and tongue already missing hers. His eyes were glazed, his short, thick hair tingling where she had been running her fingers through it, racking her nails against his scalp till his mind fizzled deliciously. He watched her smirk, fix her hair and pull her shirt lower still before entering the elevator without giving him another glance.

Something inside him that had risen in hopeful anticipation, deflated again, and he cleared his throat loudly in an attempt to compose himself. Why had she kissed him? Why was she acting now like she hadn’t? Why was she behaving like it was completely normal to just- just- ambush him with her wonderful lips and then go about her day as if the entire universe hadn’t just been shaken to its core?

“Doctor? You coming?”

He jerked at her nonchalant tone, but nodded anyway. They would just- he will ask her about it later. In the TARDIS. There was still something wrong with her tone. With the way she was carrying herself, and more and more, the doctor was getting worried. But, she looked like his Rose. And when they had kissed, The feel of her skin under his hands, the warmth and her scent was all unmistakably _Rose_. 

And yet, he was sure something had happened.

The ride to Ward 26 was silent, and when they got out, the Doctor very purposely kept his hands out of his pockets, surprised again when Rose made no move to take them. It shouldn’t be anything to note about. They had only properly known each other for a little more than a day, and yet there was a precedent. Rose and him held hands. They had since the moment they had met. And now, her crossing her arms across her chest instead of holding his, was just worrying the Doctor even more.

On the surface, this strange woman, whoever she was, was Rose. And yet, there were so many minute behavioral changes that made no sense to him. 

His suspicions were further heightened when they stepped out to Ward 26 and saw the Duke of Manhattan celebrating, having champagne with the prim blonde lady and laughing merrily. Any sign of his very incurable illness was gone, and the Doctor found himself rooted to the spot as he watched the proceedings, not understanding what was happening in this hospital.

First, Rose wasn’t Rose, and now Petrifold Regression wasn’t all that big of a deal?

Clearly, there was something going on in this hospital.

“Doctor?”

“This shouldn’t be possible.” The Doctor turned to look at not-Rose. She was swaying slightly, a finger playing with a lock of her hair in a manner that was decidedly very un-Rose like. The Doctor bit his tongue. He didn’t know where his Rose was. He needed to handle this delicately. “Come on, we need to find a terminal.” He continued, then grabbing her roughly by her arm, dragged the imposter with him, determined to not let her out of his sight for even a second.

The terminal really wasn’t all that difficult to find, and neither was it all that difficult to operate. And yet, the Doctor couldn’t find anything odd about the hospital,

“Nope. Nothing odd. Surgery, post-op, nano-dentistry.” He mumbled to himself even as he tried to ignore the way Rose (Not Rose) was pressing up against his side to see the screen,

“No, there is something else. When I was downstairs, those cat-nurses-things, they were talking about an intensive care. Where is that?”

The Doctor turned to look at her. She was helping. Why? Did she think him so daft that he would uncover whatever plot it was that this hospital was hiding without ever noticing that there was anything wrong with the woman he loved?

“You’re right.” He gritted out. Trying to calm his anger. He needed to figure out what was going on. With the hospital, but more importantly with Rose. 

He pulled out his sonic screwdriver, searching the sub-frame, and then when that failed, trying the installation protocol. A wall behind them slid open revealing a secret hallway, and the Doctor, despite the circumstances, grinned in satisfaction, grabbing Rose’s hand and pulling her in with him. 

The intensive care unit was… intense. It was a huge, cavernous chamber, looking upon thousands and thousands of pods with green doors. The Doctor walked along one of the rows, and unlocked a pod randomly with his screwdriver. 

He froze when he realised what it was that was being kept in those chambers.

“Ew. What is that?” Rose asked, scrunching her nose and looking disgusted. It was just further proof that there was something deeply wrong with her. He may not have known Rose long linearly speaking, but he knew for a fact that she was one of the most compassionate creatures in the universe. 

The Doctor couldn’t speak. He just gritted his teeth and shut the door, opening the next one only to find another being suffering from the same condition,

“What disease is that?”

“All of them.” The Doctor answered her, his voice hushed and dangerous in a way that made her want to take a step back, “Every single disease in the galaxy. They’ve been infected with everything.”

“But what about us? Are we safe?”

“The air is sterile. Just don’t touch them.”

The Doctor looked out at the rest of the chamber, taking in the thousands of in-built pods with a new light knowing what was being housed in each of them. His anger grew. He’d travelled the universe for so long, witnessed so many things, he was just so _old,_ and yet, he still managed to find things that turned his stomach in new unfound ways. 

The universe was a wonderful, beautiful, brilliant place, 

Except for when it was not.

He looked back at Rose, Rose who wasn’t at the moment Rose at all, and then back at the thousands of pods housing thousands of humans who were being treated like lab rats. 

Centuries of waiting, and this was the place where he brought her for her first trip.

He wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t want anything to do with him by the end of the day.

“Doctor,” She asked, “How many patients are there?”

“They’re not patients.” He didn’t want to explain this. Wished his brain wasn’t smart enough to jump to all the right conclusions all on it’s own,

“But, they’re sick.”

“They were born sick. They were meant to be sick. They exist to be sick. Lab rats. No wonder the sisters have got a cure for everything. They’ve built the ultimate human laboratory.” His tone was getting louder by the word, and try as he might, the Doctor couldn’t control the rage building up in him. Rose seemed to sense it too, and she took a step away from him even as she asked, 

“But- why don’t they just die?”

“Plague carriers. The last to go.”

Footsteps echoed, and the doctor turned to see one of the nurses walk over towards him, calm as if he hadn’t just caught their entire sisterhood red handed trying to get away with the worst kind of crime,

“It’s for the greater cause.” The cat nurse pronounced, and finally neared enough for the Doctor to see her face,

“Novice Hame.” He spat out, “When you took your vows, did you agree to this?”

“The sisterhood has sworn to help.”

“Help?” The doctor shouted, “All these people you’re murdering, and you’ve somehow convinced yourself that it is all for the better?!”

“It is not murder if they aren’t real people. They’re specially grown. They have no real existence.”

The Doctor thought about the looms, about how he was born and the people who came before him were born. Specially created to only carry the most superior genes, with tissue grafts from two of the most politically compatible families. Time Lords weren’t born through love, or commitment, or reproduction. They were born through science. And they were real enough just because they were _alive._

“What’s the turnover then? Thousand a day? Thousand a next? Thousand a next? How many thousand? For how many years?!” His loud voice echoed through the halls, reaching down to the fathomless pit filled with nothing but purposely sick people, “How many?!”

“Mankind needed us!” Novice Hame tried to explain, “They came to this planet with so many illnesses. We couldn’t cope. We tried everything. We tried using clone-meat and bio-cattle, but the results were too slow. So, the sisterhood grew its own flesh. That’s all they are. Flesh.”

“They’re alive.” The Doctor argued,

“But, think of those humans out there. Healthy, and happy because of us.”

“If they live because of this, then life is worthless.” 

Why was it such a difficult concept to grasp across the galaxies? Happiness at the expense of someone else’s misery shouldn’t be acceptable. That wasn’t happiness at all.

“And who are you to decide that?” Novice Hame challenged, and the superior tone in her voice just made the Doctor angrier,

“I’m the Doctor.” He took a step forward, “And if you don’t like it- if you want to take it to a higher authority, then there isn’t one. It stops with me.”

Rose stepped up then, peering over the Doctor’s shoulder in a way that made her breath hit directly behind the Doctor’s neck, raising gooseflesh even as he tightened his hands into fists,

“Just to be sure,” Rose spoke, in that stiff simpery tone of voice that was grating on the Doctor’s nerves with every second that passed solely because it wasn’t anything like his Rose’s thick London accent, “None of the humans in the city actually know about his?”

“We thought it best not-”

“Hold on,” The Doctor interrupted, “I can understand the bodies. I can understand your vows. What I can’t understand- What have you done to my Rose?”

Behind him, he felt Rose freeze, try to move away, but the Doctor’s hold on her arm was still tight as a vice, and she didn’t even manage half a step before he yanked her back. Novice Hame appeared genuinely confused, and shook her head,

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“And I’m being very, very calm. You want to beware of that, and the only reason I’m being so very, very calm is because the brain is a delicate thing. But, I swear if you even hurt a single hair on her head-”

“I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Doctor,” Rose cut in, her voice simpering-sweet. The Doctor glared at her, “I’m perfectly fine.”

“There are thousands of people dying. Rose would care.”

The Doctor watched as her expression changed, the concerned eyes and the pouty mouth that she had been faking turned into a confident sneer and a leering smile, 

She stepped closer to him, a finger trailing down his leather jacket in a move that would’ve certainly left the Doctor breathless had it come from the _right_ Rose Tyler. As it was, all it managed to accomplish was to irritate him further. Because he knew for a fact that his Rose, at this point in time, wouldn’t take such liberties with him,

“Oh, all right, clever cogs.” She breathed seducingly, “Smarty-pants, Lady killer.”

“What happened to her?” He asked, voice tight in an effort to not let the fear show.

“Why don’t you answer me first, beefcake, what happened to your face?”

The Doctor blinked, sure whoever it was he had never met her before, in any of his previous incerations. And yet, she seemed to know him. A him with a different face. More intriguingly, she seemed to know Rose. 

And that could only really mean that it was yet another out of order meeting.

“Who are you?” The Doctor asked, and though the woman didn’t really seem surprised at the question, her reply was vague enough that the Doctor still had no idea what kind of creature had possessed Rose.

“The Last Human.” Whispered the woman in Rose’ voice, tilting her face up till their lips were inchest apart. The Doctor took a step back almost involuntarily, but tightened his grip when the woman tried to get away,

“A name. Now.” He commanded.

“It’s fascinating.” Not Rose tilted her head, looking him up quizzically, “Both you and your human girl. You act like you don’t know me. And yet, I’m positive I left quite an impression on the both of you last time.”

“Yes. Good to meet you, Time traveller, me. Now, Name.”

That seemed to surprise her more than anything else. She stumbled a little, eyes going wide, “Time travel?”

“Yes. Now, I’ll ask one last time, who are you.”

“Lady Cassandra O’Brian.” Not Rose answered unblinkingly, still looking shocked at his proclamation. The Doctor had no patience for it.

“Well, Lady Cassandra, good to meet you. Now, get out of Rose.”

“I will.” She said, trying once again, futily, to flutter away, “As soon as I’ve found someone younger. And less… common. Then, I’ll junk her with the waste.”

“Okay, first of all, there is nothing _common_ about Rose.” The doctor growled, gripping her wrist a little tighter when Cassandra scoffed mockingly, “Not that any of this actually matters. Get out of her right now.”

“Oh, I think not, lover boy.” Cassandra murmured, and then plunged her hand into Rose’s cleavage, not paying a moment’s attention to the Doctor’s choked protest at the action. Before he even knew what was happening, she had a tube in her hand and was spraying something in his face.

The Doctor let go in a panic even as he felt his limbs get heavy, whatever was in that bottle, it was making his mind fog up faster than hyper vodka spiked with ginger. He could hear the matron screaming before going to call for help but it was as if all sound was being filtered through underwater. He heard sirens blaring and pods opening, Rose’s face smiling down at him in a way that was decidedly not Rose, but he couldn’t move an inch if he tried.

And then, everything went black.

When the Doctor woke up next, he was inside a pod, the doors closed and everything around him smelling heavily of death. Even with his superior immune system, he new he wouldn’t last long if Cassandra decided to activate the viruses and pathogens that the patients were being infected with, and considering he not only didn’t want to die anytime soon, he also needed to help Rose, he started banging on the glass as soon as he got his bearings, 

“Get me out of here, Cassandra! Let me out.”

“Aren’t you lucky they had a spare? Standing room only.”

“Cassandra-”

“Over the years, I’ve thought of a thousand ways to kill you, Doctor. And now, that’s exactly what I’ve got. A thousand diseases. They pump the patients with a top up every ten minutes. You’ve got… 3 minutes left. Enjoy.”

“Just let Rose go, Cassandra.”

Cassandra rolled her eyes, “This woman. I’ve just finished telling you that you will be dying in a couple of minutes, and what do you ask for? Your lovely little human.” She sneered, her voice more than a little bitter, “You and that captain of yours. Don’t know what you see in her.” 

The Doctor, though confused, had no time to question her before the nurses were back,

“Anything we can do to help?” Asked Sister Jatt,

“Straight to the point, Whiskers. I want money.”

“The sisterhood is a charity. We don’t give money. We only… accept.”

“The humans across the pond pay you a fortune. And that’s exactly what I need. A one-off payment. Oh, and perhaps, A yacht. In return for which, I shall tell the city nothing of your institutional murder. Is that clear?”

Sister Jatt pulled out a remote control from her sleeve, pressing a few buttons while Matron Casp took a menacing step forward,

“I’m afraid not.”

“I’d really advise you to think otherwise.” Cassandra threatened, but it was empty, and she took a step back when the matron took another forward,

“There’s no need. I’ll have to decline.”

“I’ll tell them!” Cassandra shouted, “And you’ve no way of stopping me. You’re not exactly nuns with guns. You’re not even armed!”

“Who needs arms when we have claws?”

And with that, she hisses, her claws shooting out of her paws as he pounces towards Cassandra, who shrieks and sprints out of the way, “Well, nice try.” Cassandra huffs, and then turns to the ever-loyal chip who's just waiting nearby, “Chip! Plan B.”

Chip nods, and then pulls a lever, opening every pod in every row of the entire chamber, including the doctor’s. The Doctor stumbles out, at the same time grateful and terrified. He looks at Cassandra in shock,

“What have you done?”

“Gave the system a shot of adrenaline. Just to wake ‘em up. See ya!”

She runs, but the Doctor isn’t about to let her get away, and dashes after her. It was ridiculous, how spectacularly things had derailed from just that morning. He had just wanted Rose to enjoy a day out on a futuristic planet. Nothing too alien as to scare her away, at the same time fascinating enough to make her never want to leave. And well, it had all gone fantastically innit? With her consciousness compressed and her body being taken over by a psychotic woman hell bent on destruction, the Doctor’s sure Rose is just having a grand ol’ time.

God, what would he do if she wanted to go home because of this?

That is, if he even could manage to save them from all of...that.

The test subjects/patients were like zombies, coming out from everywhere and targeting them. For what felt like the first time, it seemed like Cassandra was finally understanding how deep of a trouble they were in, and she was scared. That just made the doctor madder. People shouldn’t play with things they don’t understand.

“Oh my god.” She whimpered, trying to hide behind him. The Doctor let her, even if her mind was Cassandra, the body still belonged to his Rose, and the Doctor would be damned if he let anything happen to her.

“What have you done?” He glared at her, 

“It wasn’t me!”

“One touch and you get every disease in the world, and I want that body safe, Cassandra. We’ve gotta go down.”

And so they ran down the stairs, the Doctor keeping Cassandra in front of him at all times even as the PA announced around them that the building had gone under quarantine. They climbed down the last flight of stairs into the cellar, but the quarantine has rendered the elevators inoperative. Cassandra starts running the other way even as the zombies start flooding in, the Doctor following. It’s not until there’s almost out that he realises that the third member of their party isn’t with them,

“They’re going to touch him!” The Doctor calls back to Cassandra even as he watches Chip get surrounded by the zombies. He makes to move forward, but she grabs onto his sleeve,

“Leave him! He’s just a clone… thing. He’s only got half a life. Now, come on!”

And though he knows it isn’t right, that if it was the real Rose, she would’ve gone back for him in a second, the Doctor can’t. He has to protect his hearts, and his heart is currently being possessed by a woman who is looking more and more incapable of having one. He grits his teeth, and follows Cassandra, sending Chip a woefully inadequate apology even as he whimpers for his mistress, terrified.

The storm that rages ever so presently just under the surface of his skin at all times threatens to overtake him, but it ranges it in. This is not the time. He needs a clear head to get them all out of here alive. And once that is done, he is going to make sure that whoever this Lady Cassandra O’Brien is, she never comes near either of them again.

They enter a thankfully empty room next, and it doesn’t take long for the Doctor to understand where they are. There is a rather primitively constructed psycograft device built around the doorframe, and right across the room, a cooked piece of meat floating in liquid that looked like it could’ve been a brain. The Doctor takes out his sonic, and points in threateningly at Cassandra,

“We’re trapped! What are we going to do?” Cassandra cried out, not noticing the Doctor’s growing anger,

“Well, for starters, you’re going to leave that body.” The Doctor said, gesturing angrily at the psycograft, “That psycograft is banned on every civilized planet! You’re compressing Rose to death!” 

“But, I’ve nowhere to go! My original skin is dead.”

“Not my problem. You can float as atoms in the air for all I care. Now, get out.”

When Cassandra didn't reply, the Doctor took a threatening step forward, getting in her face, “I mean it, Cassandra. Give her back to me.”

She looked at him searchingly, then smirked evilly, “You asked for it, lover boy.” She whispered, and then suddenly, the Doctor found himself shoved aside his own body.

He was a timelord. His consciousness centuries old therefore ever more powerful. He could retain at least vision even if he couldn’t control himself, and so, even as he was helpless to do anything but watch, he still let out a mental breath of relief as he saw Rose come back to herself,

Rose felt disoriented as she stumbled into control of her own body, memories of herself doing things she didn’t remember wanting to do surfacing all blurry and half-formed. She brushed them away, realising at least, that there wasn’t any time at the present to ponder on them. They were in danger, and the doctor had found her, had known that she wasn’t herself, that threatened that flap of skin, Cassandra, till she had let Rose go-

“Where did she go?” Rose looked around, half expecting to see that flap of skin back alive and stretched out like a trampoline, but other than the doctor and herself, there was no one there.

“Oh, my-” Purred the Doctor’s deep northern baritone in a tone that made Rose stare at him, wide eyed, “This is very… different!”

“Cassandra?” Rose asked, horrified at the idea, just from the way the Doctor was standing, the way he was trailing his broad hands over his chest, his sides, down his bum-

Rose looked away, flushing red even as she grew angry,

“Goodness, me! I’m a man. Yum! So many parts! And Hardly used-'' The Doctor-Cassandra’s eyes widened suddenly, and she placed her/his? hands on his chest, “Oh. Two hearts! Oh, baby, I’m beating out a samba!”

“Cassandra, get out of him!”

But she didn’t. Instead, She ran his hand down his torso, slower this time, a leer forming on his lips, “Oh, and he’s strong.” She purred, before looking at Rose with a look in his eyes that was a little too all knowing for Rose’s taste, “An odd sort of sexy.”

She waggled his eyebrows in Rose’s direction, before walking closer, “You think so too. I’ve been inside your head.” Rose blushed red, hoping against all hope that the Doctor wouldn’t remember this. Rose herself found her memories a bit too fleeting to concentrate on them enough to recall. Cassandra grinned down at her, the same kind of grin that the Doctor used when he called her brilliant, devoid of all warmth and affection, and yet still effective in making her heart race, “You’ve been looking.” She teased, “You like it.”

Before she could say anything in her defense (where would she even start?), the zombie patients suddenly burst through the doors, and Rose and Cassandra jumped,

“What would we do? What would he do? The Doctor?!” She panicked, “What would he do??”

Rose looked around, not having known the Doctor for all that long, she had no idea how his brain worked, but if she had learned one thing, it was that most of his plans were spontaneous and built on the spot. She saw a ladder going up at the far end of the room, and starting running towards it,

“The ladder. We’ve gotta get up.”

Cassandra pushed her aside, grabbing on to the rungs, before Rose could even understand what had happened, “Out of my way, blondie.”

And oh, that nasty tone in her Doctor’s voice did hurt a little. 

Rose shook her head before Following Cassandra up the ladder. They still had no idea how they would get out of this situation. Rose hadn’t thought up of an escape route. She had just managed to delay the inevitable for a little while,

“If you get out of the doctor’s body, he can think of something.” She called out, knowing all too well that it was going to go over poorly but having to try anyway,

“Oh shut up, blondie. God, it was tedious in your head. All you’ve been doing is thirsting over this hunk of meat.”

Rose flushed, equal parts in embarrassment and anger. That was just- decidedly not true.

“I have not-” Her protest cut off in a scream when she felt something grab onto her leg, only feeling the slightest bit of relief to see it was one of the cat nurses and not the zombies, “Get off!”

“All that healing! All our good work!” The matron gasped out, “The good name of sisterhood. You have ruined everything!”

Cassandra rolled his eyes dismissively even though she was in the front and no one could actually see it, “Go and play with a ball of string.” She muttered.

“Everywhere! Disease! This is the human world. Sickness.” The matron continued, but just then a diseased hand grabbed onto her ankle, and she screamed in pain even as sores started building onto her skin. She fell down, having no more strength left in her, and the zombies started climbing up behind her,

“Move!” Rose shouted, when she found Cassandra too frozen with fear to do much else than stare, terrified. The woman whimpered, and then started climbing faster. They climbed to the very top, realizing that they had been on a lift shaft. Only, the doors of the lift were sealed shut, and there was no where else to go,

“Now what do we do?”

“I don’t know, Cassandra. You need to let the Doctor go. He’ll know what to do!” When the other woman seemed to hesitate, Rose huffed, “Look, just get back into me.” She offered reluctantly,

“Okay, then. Hold on tight!” And with that, Rose felt everything go black again.

The Doctor came into himself, with hordes of zombies behind him and a closed door in front of him, with only Rose’s fragile human body between him and danger. Terrified would be too small of a word to use.

“Oh, chavtastic again!” Cassandra sneered sarcastically, “Open it!” She called out, but the Doctor was beyond caring now. Only one thing mattered now. He pulled out his sonic and pointed it at Cassandra,

“Not till you get out of her.” 

“We need the Doctor.” She tried to plead, and whatever, _he_ needed Rose. Seemed like they were on a standstill, weren’t they?

“I order you to leave her!” He shouted, so incredibly tired of how the day had turned out when all he had been planning was for a nice, relaxing day spent browsing through New Earth’s famous farmer’s market.

“No matter how difficult the situation, there is no need to shout.” Cassandra muttered before getting back into him. It was getting easier to focus on the situation even as her consciousness took command of his body, it was one skill that the Doctor had no intention of mastering anytime soon.

“Cassandra!” He heard Rose shout, “Get out of him.” and Rasillon, did he love her for the anger he could hear in her voice,

“But, I can’t get into you! He simply refuses! He’s so rude!”

“I don’t care! Just do something.”

He had been ready to shout when he felt Cassandra get out of him again, but this time, instead of possessing Rose again, she had instead taken over the body of one of the zombies. Quickly, the Doctor opened the lift and climbed in, getting his arm around Rose’s waist and lifting her into the lift after him. Her arms instinctively wrapped around his shoulders, and she grinned up at him with such relief in her eyes, it took everything in him not to just snog her senseless… again.

“Glad to have you back.” He breathed out a little hoarsely, and watched as her eyes darkened a little. He remembered then, what Cassandra had said, about Rose finding this him sexy, and his smile got a little cocky at the thought that he might be having even the fraction of the same effect that she had on him all the time.

Before she could reply though, Cassandra called out from beneath them, “Oh, no you don’t!” And forced herself back into Rose. The Doctor’s temper rose once again even as he sealed the elevator doors shut to stop from any of the rest of the zombies from entering,

“That was your last warning, Cassandra!” He stated, but she wasn’t listening to him. Her eyes were staring listlessly at the wall across, her expression strangely pitious for a woman who had till then, showed no ounce of sympathy towards anyone,

“Inside her head- they were so alone. They keep reaching out, just to hold us.” She looked at the Doctor, Rose's face, with Rose’s molten gold eyes soft and searching for answers, “All their lives, and they’ve never been touched.”

He looked at her, Rose who still wasn’t Rose but looked close enough in that moment that he could’ve done anything to get that devastated expression off her face.

And just then, he had the most brilliant idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there's one last part left to this.
> 
> as always, kudos and feedback are always appreciated ;) 
> 
> also, if you want to know when i update, or if you have any prompts or suggestions, you can follow me on:
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> bye~


	5. Episode 2: New Earth [Part 3]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, this is the final part of the New Earth episode. i hope you enjoy it. there are multiple parts in this chapter in particular that i really enjoyed writing. but, i won't spoil anything ;)
> 
> HAPPY READING!
> 
> p.s. if you want to talk to me or read some of my other works, you can always follow me on:
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When they reached Ward 26, there were only a few people left untouched. Frau Clovis, the duke of Manhattan’s secretary, brandished a chair at them, roaring like an animal, and without thinking, the Doctor pushed Cassandra behind him, holding out his hands to an attempt to calm the angry woman down,

“We’re safe! We’re clean! Look-”

“Show me your skin!” The woman growled, and the doctor pulled up the sleeves of his jacket, watched from the corner of his eyes as Rose too, showed her unmarred skin. 

“Look, we’re clean. If we’d been touched. We’d be dead.” The woman calmed, nodding and putting down her chair, and the Doctor took another step forward into the ward, “So, how’s it going up here? What’s the status?”

“There is nothing but silence from the other wards.” Frau Clovis replied, “I think we’re the only ones left. And I’ve been trying to override the quarantine.” She said, fiddling with the little device in her head, a frown of frustration overtaking the anger that had been there previously, “If I can trip a signal over to New New York, they can send a private executive squad.”

“You can’t do that.” The Doctor shook his head, his arms crossed over his chest, “If they force entry, they will break quarantine.”

Frau Clovies shot him an angry glare, “I’m not dying in here.”

The Doctor glared at her right back, “We can’t let a single particle of disease get out. There are ten million people in the city. They’d all be at risk. Now, turn that thing off!”

“Not if it gets me out.”

The doctor scoffed, took a step forward and snatched the device from her hand fast enough that it was gone before she could even comprehend what had happened, “Now, Novice Hame, Cassandra, Everyone! Get me the intravenous solutions for every single disease.” When all they did was stare at him blankly, the doctor grunted in annoyance, and clapped his hands, “Chop chop now, haven’t got all day.”

Everyone present ran of in all directions, grabbing bags of IVs from the refrigerators and bringing them to the Doctor while he tied a rope around his body and Cassandra attached the pouch bags of solutions to it so that they hung off of him,

“What are you going to do with these?” She asked, but was ignored. Instead, the Doctor soniced opened the lift shaft, “The lifts are closed.” 

“They aren’t closed. They aren’t moving. Not the same thing.” He said, peering down the shaft. He took a deep breath, took a few steps back, readying himself for a jump. “Here we go-” He muttered, held the sonic between his teeth and then leaped over onto the elevator cable, Cassandra's yelp of surprise nothing but a background noise.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” She screeched at him,

“I'm going down.” He shouted back. He stared at her when she made no move to follow him, “Come on!” He called back, exasperated.

“Not in a million years.” 

“I need another pair of hands.” He said, then gave her a challenging look, “If you’re so desperate to stay alive, Cassandra, why don’t you live a little?”

Cassandra would’ve refused. The woman had not one adventurous bone in her body (hell, she didn’t even have a body.) But just then, hordes of zombies emerged onto the floor, and behind her, Frau Clovies sealed the doors to Ward 26. With no other way out but down, she moaned her own bad luck, and then threw herself onto the Doctor’s back,

“You’re completely mad.” She told him, when he only really grunted at the addition of her weight, “I can see why she likes you.”

The Doctor grinned at her words despite the situation, irrationally pleased for a statement so tame, but he could see the light at the end of the tunnel now. Had a plan and everything and it was going about in a rather fantastic fashion, if he did say so himself. “Going down.” He warned, before he soniced the wench, and down they fell, sparks flying off the cable till they reached the top of the elevator.

“Now listen,” The Doctor told Cassangra when she pulled away from him, “when I say so, take a hold of that lever.”

“There is still a quarantine down there. We can’t-” She started to protest, but was cut off when he shot her an irritated look,

“Hold. That. Lever.” He repeated, voice tight and eyes angry. When he had stopped protesting that he let the blonde girl go, a part of her had thought that she could get away with it, but Cassandra was now realising that he was just containing his fury in a tight box now, prioritising the situation. As soon as he had solved the problems with the zombies, she had no doubt she would have to give him the new body. She backed down. Nodded.

“I’m cooking up a cocktail.” He muttered, talking more to himself than to her, “I’m the Doctor. Know a bit about medicine myself.” He ripped open the bags of fluid, dumping them in the clear container where the disinfectant should go. He turned to her when the bags were all empty, “Now, that lever’s going to resist. But, keep it in position.”

He opened the door on top of the lift and jumped down, opening the elevator doors with his sonic. The infected zombies just beyond the lift,

“I’m in here!” He called out to them quiet cheerily to Cassandra’s shock, “Come and get me! Come on!”

“Don’t call them!” She protested from above him,

“Pull that lever!” He ordered instead, and she did, activating the disinfectant. The zombies follow him into the elevator while the doctor himself got soaked in the cure. He kept beckoning more of them closer, watched them get showered in medicine, grinned happily as their skins cleared and color returned to their faces.

They passed it on amongst themselves, and the Doctor himself hugged as many of them as he could. He heard Cassandra jump off behind him, and turned to give even her a blinding grin. She still looked confused. Of course, not all people could be as brilliant as his Rose as to catch up as quickly as she did.

“What did you do? Did you kill them? All of them?”

He scoffed, even the idea disgusted him, “No. That’s your way of doing things. I’m the Doctor. I cured them.”

The pod-patients turned into newly minted humans, they were child-like, just now seeing the real world. Encountering other beings. They were touch starved, and they came to him for warmth, and knowing better than almost anyone how loneliness feels he hugged them tighter. 

They were a whole new life form. An entirely new subspecies. They weren't quite human. Not quite anything else, and yet, they were so completely, wonderfully, fantastically  _ alive.  _

He turned to the woman beside him, expecting her to be just as welcoming and finding her still wary. He remembered then, another incredibly important thing that he needed to fix, and now that there was no more danger, he pulled Cassandra by her arms into one of the more secluded corners,

“Now, it’s your turn. Let Rose go.”

“But-” It was a token protest at best. Cassandra had been in both their heads. She knew of things that have happened for one of them and things that were yet to come for another. And yet- “I don’t want to die.”

“Nobody wants to die, Cassandra.” The Doctor crossed his arms over his chest, intimidating and unyielding, “But, you’ve lived long enough. The last human, you said?”

“Help me!” she begged,

“I can’t.”

Just then, Chip rounded the corner, meeting the both of them with side smiles. “Chip!” Cassandra exclaimed, looking not as much relieved as surprised at his survival,

“Mistress!” Chip waddled closer, “I kept myself safe for you.”

But, she wasn’t listening. Instead, she was staring at his body as if it were an outfit she would like to try on, “A body. A volunteer even.”

But the Doctor already knew what she was planning, and he shook his head, “No. It’s not fair, Cassandra. He’s got a life of his own.”

“But, I worship the mistress!” Chip argued. Cassandra ignored his protests, leaping into Chip’s body, but the Doctor couldn’t bring himself to do anything about it when it made Rose, his Rose, all Rose, stumble right into his arms, all dizzy and unstable,

“Hey,” He pulled her closer, his voice soft, “Hey, you alright?”

She opened her eyes and only to lose her balance again, and the Doctor wrapped his arms around her tightly to keep her secure while she got her bearings, 

Rose looked up at him again after a moment, that overwhelming darkness and fuzzy not-her memories replaced by his concerned face and bright, relieved, blue eyes. She couldn’t help but grin at him, “Hello.”

He grinned back, as madly as always, and pulled her into a hug, “Hello!” His hearts were giddy at her attention, everything from the softness in her eyes to the way she exhaled, all 100% Rose and completely directed at him, “Hello. Welcome back.”

They just grinned at each other for an eternity, and the Doctor would’ve spent another just like that with her so comfortably leaning against his arms, if it weren’t for interruption of the rest of the real world,

“Oh, Sweet Lord! I’m a walking doodle!” Cassandra exclaimed, and the pair of them pulled away enough for the Doctor to manage to gather enough brain space to confront Cassandra once again,

“You can’t stay in there, Cassandra. I’m sorry, but it’s just not fair. I can take you to the city. They can build you a skin tank and you can stand trial for what you’ve done.”

“Well, that would be rather dramatic. Possibly my finest hour. And certainly my finest hat.” Cassandra replied, managing to look both prideful and sad at the same time, “But, I’m afraid we don’t have time. Poor little Chip is only a half life. And he’s been through so much. His heart is racing so. He’s failing. I don’t think he’s going to last.

Chips’ legs gave away just as she said this, and Rose lunged forward to catch Cassandra before she fell on to the ground, the Doctor walking over to stand before her,

“You alright?” He asked, knowing she was anything but.

“I’m dying.” Cassandra said, “But, I’m fine.”

“I can take you to the city.” The Doctor offered, his toneless, empty voice worrying Rose more than anything else. 

“No, you won’t. Everything is new on this planet. There is no place for Chip or me anymore. You’re right, Doctor. It’s time to die.”

Rose frowned, not understanding why a woman who had been so hellbent on surviving would give up so easily now. She had no words of comfort, though, and instead focused on holding her steady, taking on more of her weight when she leaned into her further.

“Come on, then.” The doctor said, tilting his head towards the entrance, out where they had parked the TARDIS, “There is one last thing that I can do for you.”

\---

They watched from the sidelines as Cassandra, as Chip, called the younger Caasandra, the truly human Cassandra, beautiful. It was bittersweet. Rose couldn’t understand vanity to that degree, but she could understand that every creature in the universe had to have different priorities in their life. And just because beauty wasn’t as important to her as it had been to Cassandra, it didn’t mean that it wasn’t important at all.

Cassandra died the only way she could’ve died happy. In the arms of someone she truly loved. Herself.

They walked back to the tardis silently. For a first trip, the entire day had been quite heavy, and yet for the life of her, Rose couldn’t stop her brain from running,

“Doctor?”

“Hmm?” He turned to face her, hands still on the dials where he was standing in front of the time rotor, 

“Cassandra. She knew us. Both you and me. And we’ve never met her before.”

“Ah! Yes, It’s something you get fairly used to while travelling through time. Meeting people out of order.” He walked closer to her, “All of time and space is at our disposal, Rose Tyler. I could take you to the 1900s tomorrow and then to the year 70,000 the day after. We could go to visit alien planets, see flying comets, birthing nebulas, have drinks on the moon. In the middle of all that chaos, we’re bound to meet people sometimes who know us before we get to know them.”

She looked up at him, eyes wide. He always used such big words. Big, beautiful, fascinating words, showing her glimpses of a world she was dying to be a part of. She grinned up at him, feeling almost violently invigorated considering she hadn’t slept in almost the past twenty four hours. He grinned back, and then blinked, remembering something,

“The face of Boe!”

“The face of who?”

“It was the person who had sent me the message on the psychic paper. Yet another out of order meeting. I need to talk to him. You mind if we go back to the hospital?”

Truth be told, Rose sort of wanted to stay far, far away from cat nuns and futuristic hospitals for at least a while. But, this was important. She could tell just from the way the Doctor was almost bouncing on his toes, “Of course not.” She shook her head, but when they did land, back to New Earth to walk back into the hospital, ward 26, she grabbed his hand before getting out of the TARDIS.

By the way he tightened his grip around hers, she presumed he didn’t mind.

The Face of Boe was right where he had left him before the entire fiasco with patient zombies, but he did look much healthier. The Doctor smiled,

“You were supposed to be dying.” He teased. Beside him, Rose was staring at the giant floating head, eyes wide, though she said nothing in an attempt to be polite. The face of Boe turned to look at her, and suddenly, in her head, there was a sound of laughing. She jerked in surprise,

“ _ Rose Tyler _ .” the face of Boe said, though his lips didn’t form a word, “ _ You look as beautiful as ever.” _

Rose blushed, remembered what little she had learned about telepathy from the doctor and sort of just, replied to them out loud, “Thank you.” She hesitated, then added, “It’s nice to meet you.”

She turned to look at the Doctor beside her. He was staring at her, a mixture of wonder and surprise coloring her ice blue eyes a warmer sea-green, “You can hear him?”

“It’s.. sort of muzzled.” She tried to explain, “Like a really late echo, but yes. Is that not normal?”

“Not really in humans, no.” The Doctor shook his head, “But, I think we’ve already established that you’re a lot more telepathically sensitive than most humans.”

That same laugh reached her again, warm and affectionate, and they both turned to the face of Boe, who had a familial smile on his old weathered face as he regarded the two of them,

“ _ It’s been like this from the very beginning, hasn’t it? _ ” The face of Boe asked, “ _ Just the two of you in a bubble with the others on the outside looking in. _ ”

They blushed red, but neither answered out loud. Didn’t mean that the Doctor didn’t reprimand him telepathically,

“ _ It’s still early for her _ .” He tried to explain, “ _ I only just met her yesterday. _ ”

“ _ And yet, the two of you have yet to let go of eachother _ .” The face of Boe observed, sounding particularly smug in the Doctor’s head. The Doctor rolled his eyes,

“Anyway,” The Doctor deflected, stepping closer to crouch in front of the glass case so that they were face to face with each other, “I came here to talk to you. Earlier, when I met you, I got the impression that there was something you wanted to tell me.”

“A great secret.” The face of Boe agreed.

“So the legend says.”

The face of Boe looked at Rose, then back at the Doctor, his ageless eyes a little solemn, “It can wait.”

“Oh, does it have to?”

“We shall meet again, Doctor, for the third time. For the last time. And the truth shall be told. Until then-”

And then, he teleported away.

The doctor huffed, “That is enigmatic. That is- textbook enigmatic.”

“What do you think the secret is?” Rose asked him as they made there way out of the hospital, swinging their intertwined hands a little between them,

“No idea.” He stopped them on their way to the TARDIS, and then turned to face her, “How are you feeling?”

“What do you mean?”

“Rose, Cassandra suppressed your entire consciousness in your own body for the better part of the day. That’s not something anyone can bounce back from. How are you feeling?”

Rose looked up at him, wondered if she should tell him about the pieces of memories coming back to her. Memories of calling him sexy, and lover boy, and memories of snogging him senseless. She blushed red, looked away,

“I’m feeling perfectly fine.”

The Doctor hesitated, then took a bracing breath in, “And are you sure you want to continue this?”

“This?”

“Travelling with me. Knowing how dangerous it can be.”

“Doctor, I knew how dangerous it could get when we almost got killed by living plastic. I already got scared once and almost lost this.” She held one of his hands in both of hers, bringing them up to her chest, “I’m not going to get scared off again.”

“Yeah?” He grinned, she smiled back just as wide,

“Yes.”

“Okay.” He exhaled, shoulders slumping a little in relief, then looked around him, “Are you hungry?”

“A bit, yeah.”

“Wanna have lunch?”

“Yeah, yes. Let’s have lunch. What will we have for lunch?” She bounced next to him excitedly as they walked towards the city. The Doctor remembered a conversation from lifetimes ago, back when he carried an umbrella and spoke with an accent that was decidedly scottish. Back when he met the love of his lives in a library- no, in  _ the _ library- and they had had lunch because she loved-

“Chips? What about chips? Love chips, me.”

If possible, Rose’s smile got even wider, the pep in her steps evermore prominent, and she squeezed his hand, still ever so safely encased between two of hers, in excitement, “Oh, I  _ adore  _ chips, Doctor.”

He grinned down at her, almost stupidly besotted, “Chips it is, then.”

She didn’t know what she had expected from New New York five billion years into her future, but it definitely wasn’t a regular looking fish and chips place down one of the streets. She was glad for the familiarity even as the cat people mingling happily with the humans didn’t let her forget where she really was.

They ordered, the Doctor flashing long then steel stick as a form of payment and they took a seat near one of the corner booths overlooking the street. Rose had never been to the New York in her time, but she had heard that it was almost always crowded, and so was this place. There were a gazillion shops, selling a gazillion things, and people were dressed in the strangest of outfits as they explored the markets. She let her eyes roam around, and they widened when she saw a large group of people in intricately designed domino masks paraded down the streets, music blasting and people dancing as they laughed and sang along.

Rose turned to the Doctor eagerly, “What’s that for then?” She asked, but the Doctor was frowning at them too,

“Not too sure really.” He replied, “Maybe we should-”

“It’s the annual tikaani festival.” Their server answered, appearing out of nowhere and placing two baskets of fish and chips on the table, Rose was delighted to find that even now, they served them in newspapers. Their server was young, probably in his early twenties, and Rose would have pegged him completely human if it weren’t for how his arms and neck were covered in pretty blue fish scales. His teeth were sharp when he smiled at them, somehow managing to appear completely welcoming, “You must be off-worlders, then, if you don’t know about it.”

“Yeah, we were just passing by.” The Doctor answered, crossed his arms over his chest, “So, what is this tikaani festival?”

“On the first full moon of the start of the fall season, the Catkind celebrate the arrival of their Wolf Goddess.” The boy explained, his own tone getting a little excited as he got into it, “She was said to have saved them from the tyranny of their previous leader, bringing peace and democracy to the land. It was all so long ago that most of the details have been lost in translation. But, the Catkind have always celebrated tikaani. And once the humans settled in, they joined in on the fun.”

“It sounds wonderful.” Rose commented, grinning up at him, not noticing the Doctor’s thoughtful frown,

“Oh it is.” The boy nodded, “I mean, it’s New New York, this place is always bustling. But, the city truly does come alive at the night of tikaani. For two people who had no idea about it, you’ve come to visit at a very good time. Stick around for a few more hours, get a couple of masks from one of the vendors outside, and join us near the New Times Square. You’ll love it.”

Rose looked at the Doctor, her doe eyes wide and pleading. The Doctor sighed, even as a grin formed on his face at her antics, “Sure, we’ll be there.”

After they had been done with their chips, Rose dragged the Doctor over to one of the vendors selling marks outside, instantly raptured by all the different colors and textures and shapes. The Doctor looked down at her with an affectionate smile before turning to survey the masks himself, grinning when one of them stood out immediately. 

He pulled it out from the rest, showed it to Rose, “You should get this one.” Her breath caught at the sight of it, a delicate gold mask, with deep red jewels embedded on the top, it had a beautiful carved rose on it’s side. She looked up at the Doctor, and took the mask eagerly, “Okay, but only if I get to choose yours.” 

“By all means.”

She surveyed the selection with returned determination, shifting through the delicate material until her fingers caught on something harder. She grinned when she pulled the mask out, it was beautiful, sepia tones of off white and dark brown with pretty golden detailing, on one of the sides there was music printed around the eyes. 

“Why that one?” The Doctor asked even as he took it without a word of protest. Paying the vendor with that same metal stick,

“It looks-” She stopped, biting her lip, and then decided to continue anyway, “Ancient and tough and intelligent and beautiful. Just like you.”

She didn’t think she had seen the Doctor turn that shade of red before. It made her grin like a loon.

The tiraaki festival was  _ chaos  _ in the best sense of the word. People of all classes seemed to be there. There were people in gorgeous dresses and silks, and equally beautiful people in casual jeans and skirts. There were cat-people, and regular humans, and aliens with extra appendages and different colors and it was just-

Just stunning.

Rose felt overwhelmed even as her blood pumped with excitement. She held on to the Doctor’s hand tighter as they made their way deeper into the crowd. There were drinks handed to them, bubbly fizzy glasses that tasted like champagne and felt like clouds in her mouth. The Doctor got incredibly excited at the prospect of nibbles, and dragged her to the buffet, introducing her to all the delicacies (of the finger food variety) that the year five billion had to offer.

They made friends, a rather intoxicated drunk girl called Emma who complimented the Doctor on his mask, gushing about Mozart and, according to the doctor, getting every fact wrong. Then there was also Jason, an older man of the catkind who rambled on to Rose about how she looked just like his daughter, which made no sense, because again, according to the Doctor, catkind genes were much more dominant than a human’s, and even if Jason had been married to a pure human woman, the progeny would have been too cat-like to bear any resemblance to Rose whatsoever.

The fireworks started at midnight, and when they burst in the sky, they burst in shapes of wolves. Gold and red and bright. So detailed, it made Rose go quiet with awe. The people around them celebrated even as the Doctor and her stood still, staring up at the sky and taking it all in. He looked down at her when she leaned her head against his arm,

“You okay?”

“Hmm?” She tilted her head to meet his eyes, “Yeah, it’s just- it’s beautiful.”

“Yes.” He said, ice blue eyes unwaveringly on her, “Yes, it really is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and that is the end of this episode! i hope you guys like it.
> 
> note: these are basically what the doctor and rose's masks look like: [link](https://ymnfilter.tumblr.com/post/642195431646986240/the-doctor-and-roses-domino-masks-in-daffodils)
> 
> as always, kudos and feedback are always appreciated! thank you for reading ;)
> 
> p.s. if you want to talk to me or read some of my other works, you can always follow me on:
> 
> tumblr: [@ymnfilter](https://ymnfilter.tumblr.com)  
> twitter: [@ymnfilter](https://twitter.com/ymnfilter)


	6. Episode 3: The Quiet Undead [Part 1]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the first part of the two parts of the episode the quiet undead! i love this episode. at least 50% just because of the iconic 'Blimey! You're beautiful' line. Nine was a suave bastard and I loved him for it ;)
> 
> anyway, i don't really want to give anything away~~
> 
> HAPPY READING!!
> 
> p.s. if you want to talk to me or read some of my other works, you can always follow me on:
> 
> tumblr: [@ymnfilter](https://ymnfilter.tumblr.com)  
> twitter: [@ymnfilter](https://twitter.com/ymnfilter)

“So,” Rose started when the TARDIS came into view, she grabbed on to the Doctor’s arm to bring his attention back to her, not that it had gone anywhere else in the first place, “Where are we going next?”

The doctor raised an eyebrow, “Blimey, Rose Tyler. Almost 20 hours you’ve been awake. Sure your little human body isn’t tired?” He asked, unlocking the TARDIS door and getting in, Rose closing the door behind him,

“Of course not.” She skipped over to the time rotor, still so fascinated by how the lights blinked to welcome her in, the slight hum she felt just at the outskirts of her mind, as warm and comforting as a hot cup of tea on a cold night, “A whole entire universe, Doctor!” She gushed, as if he wasn’t even aware of what he was offering her, “All of time. How could I  _ ever  _ stay still?”

The Doctor grinned at her enthusiasm, jogging over to join her at the console, “Okay then. You’ve seen the future, how about the past? 1860.” He said, turning on a dial as the TARDIS started shaking, “How does 1860 sound?”

“What happened in 1860?” She asked, even as she moved to stand next to him,

“I don’t know. Let’s find out.” The shaking increased, and the Doctor ran over to the other side to turn up the stabilizer, “Hold that button down, Rose.” He yelled over the TARDIS’s groaning,

Rose did, and the groaning increased even as the shaking subsided a little. The lever the Doctor had adjusted started sliding down, and Rose, yelping a little in surprise, threw herself on the console a little further to grab and hold it in place,

“Good girl.” He called out just before there was a massive lurch, and she went down with a yell, landing on the grating with an oomph, the Doctor laying right next to her. The TARDIS quietened, having landed, and the both of them, out of breath, looked at each other for a moment,

The Doctor grinned. She burst out into laughter.

“You okay?” He asked, standing up once they had gotten a hold of themselves, giving her a hand before walking over to the scanner,

“Yeah, I think so. No broken bones. Did we make it?”

“I did it! Give the man a medal. Earth, Naples, December 24th, 1860.”

If possible, Rose’s eyes were sparkling brighter than a moment before, “It’s Christmas?” She asked, excitedly.

The Doctor gestured towards the door, “All yours.”

She looked towards the door, and then back at the Doctor before shaking her head, “No, but just think about it. Christmas. 1860. Happens only once. Just once, and it’s gone. It’s finished. It’ll never happen again. Except for you.” He smiled brightly at the awe in her voice, so incredibly grateful to know that she seemed to love this life as much as he did, better, that she seemed to understand this life as well as he did. “You can go back and see days that are dead and gone and a hundred sunsets ago.” She smiled, “No wonder you never stay still.”

“Not a bad life.” He offered, hoped, she tilted her head a little, that tongue touched smile of hers making his hearts race,

“Better with two.” 

The Doctor chuckled, nodded, added silently to himself,  _ no, 's just better with you.  _

She smiled as if she heard him anyway, and in the next second, she was gunning for the door,

“Oi!” He called out, crossed his arms over his chest and grinned, “Where do you think you’re going.”

“1860.” She said, as if that was obvious,

“Go out dressed like that, and you’ll cause a riot, Barberella!” Never mind that she had lost her hoodie back on New Earth due to that stint with Cassandra, the shoulder cutouts on her grey t-shirt were a bit distracting even for him. He tilted his head towards the hallway, “There’s a wardrobe down there, the TARDIS will show you. Now, hurry up.”

She nodded quickly, and then ran for the wardrobe. The TARDIS hallways were just like the rest of the console room. All orange walls with those round things and branches of coral. The TARDIS lit up the way to the wardrobe, and Rose, who even though knew that the ship was bigger on the inside, still found it a little difficult to correlate the never ending rooms she walked past to the police box that she had entered through.

She would have to ask the Doctor to explain it to her, the science behind it. Make him dumb it down a little for the human.

The lights blinked in front of one of the rooms, and Rose opened the door without a thought. She hadn’t been prepared for what she saw. The wardrobe room was gigantic. With racks and racks of clothes that seemed to go on and on with no end in sight. Eyes wide and mouth agape, she took in the room with clothes arranged in no particular order that she could identify.

The Doctor wanted her to pick out  _ one _ dress from all of this?

She laid a hesitant hand on one of the coral walls, smiling a little when it warmed slightly under her hands, “You’re going to have to help me out here, darling.” She whispered to the TARDIS, a little surprised when the term of endearment slipped out of her lips. The ship was familiar to her, somehow, her warm presence in the periphery of her mind had gotten less weird and more normal despite how short of a time that she had actually spent inside the ship. Rose wasn’t sure if she was losing her mind, taking all of this so fairly well, but compared to what her life had been before the Doctor had whisked her away from it, this was just…  _ more. _

Ever since she could remember, Rose had always wanted more.

The TARDIS guided her through the racks of clothes in the same way she had done with the hallways till Rose stood in front of a rack of gorgeous period dresses. She browsed through them, oddly feeling like she was shopping with a friend, and eliminated anything that might need a corset, just because she had no idea how to go about wearing one. Instead, she took out a two piece dress, an off shoulder black lace top paired with a long maroon ruffled skirt. There was a pretty black cloak with snowflake prints which seemed appropriate enough considering it was Christmas. She switched out her trainers for a pair of beautiful low heeled boots. If meeting the Doctor had taught Rose one thing, it was that the man attracted trouble. The second thing, more surprising that the formal, was that Rose _loved_ the trouble. 

And so, she made sure her choice of outfit was both pretty and easy to run in if need arose. The TARDIS then gave her a slight nudge towards one of the chest drawers, and Rose opened it to find a pair of earrings and a rose hair piece that matched the color palette of her dress. She looked up at the ceiling, smiling a thankyou before brushing her hair in a low bun, locking it in with the rose pin and putting on the new earrings. The full length mirror showed Rose looking like a princess, and despite herself, she faltered a bit.

Growing up in the estates, most, if not all of her wardrobe had been hand-me-downs from either her mom, or her mate Shareen who had an early growth spurt. And never in her dreams, had she imagined she would ever be able to wear clothes like these. She still didn’t own any of these, but she could just imagine her mother looking at her at the moment, frowning before loudly lamenting her daughter getting ‘airs and graces’.

God, she hoped she didn’t look like an absolute idiot.

Excitement marring with hesitance, she ran back towards the console room, and found the doctor busy under the console, hard at work with his sonic screwdriver out. He turned it off when he heard her come in, and poked his head out of the grating, losing his rehearsed line of ‘human females taking too much time choosing clothes’ when he saw what she was wearing,

“Blimey!” Looking like that, she might  _ still _ end up causing a riot.

“Now, don’t laugh.” She warned him, her own smile wavering a bit at his shocked face. But the doctor shook his head,

“Why would I? You look beautiful.” He said it so frankly, as if it were nothing new. As if he had had the same thoughts running through his mind when she had been in her ratty t-shirt and jeans that he had now. It made her even more flustered,

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

She bit her lip to curb her growing smile, but nothing could hide the blush building over her cheeks. The Doctor gave her a knowing look, and she changed the subject hurriedly,

“Aren’t you going to change?”

“I’m wearing a new jumper.” He hopped out of the grating in a movement that was so suave, it couldn’t be anything less than attractive, and took her hand in his, “Now, come on, out those doors, 1860 awaits.”

Rose stepped out into fresh white snow, no London gutter water to make it gross. The buildings around them looked golden in the light of orange gas lamps, so intricate to look at, it took a moment for Rose to catch her breath. She looked around, the stars in the sky, the cobblestones beneath them. There was no doubt that they were in the past. No modern day imitation could ever compare to  _ this.  _

She had half expected to view the world in sepia tones. A sort of old beige overtone layered over everything, but no. The past was bright. Bright, and lovely and really, really-

-smelly.

She scrunched her nose a bit, but even that couldn’t curb her excitement. The Doctor stepped out behind her, and she turned to him immediately,

“Ready for this?” He offered his arm like an absolute gentlemen, and Rose, having grown up on the estate, around estate boys who did nothing more than shower every few days and spend their nights watching football at the pub, giggled and took it eagerly. “Here we go, history.”

Rose’s enthusiasm was infectious, and the Doctor, who’d travelled the universe for longer than he cared to remember, found himself looking at everything with new eyes. There were quite a few people milling about considering the late hour. Carol singers going door to door and shop vendors promoting last minute Christmas shopping. They stopped at a few of those, Rose admiring a few beautifully handcrafted music boxes and soft scented letter papers. The Doctor catalogued everything she touched, everything that made her eyes shine, and after she had moved a little farther away, he bought them all.

They bought a newspaper from one of the men standing near the lamppost, and his mood dimmed a bit when he saw the date,

“I got the flight a bit wrong.” He confessed with a scowl, but Rose was too high and happy to let that get her mood down,

“I don’t care.” She replied,

“It’s 1869, not 1860.” He said,

“I don’t care.” His lips stretched back up in a smile, she was wonderful.

“And it’s not Naples.” He teased this time. She looked up at him, noticed the challenge in his eyes and stepped closer to press her side to his,

“ _I don’t care_.”

He really, really, did want to kiss her so bad.

He blinked, shook his head even as he grinned like a goon, “We’re in Cardiff.”

_That_ made her scrunch her nose a bit, and he laughed, “What’s wrong with Cardiff?”

“Nothing!” She protested, “Just, nothing ever really happens in  _ Cardiff _ .”

“I dunno about that. There’s a rift-”

As if summoned by Rose’s words alone, a scream pierced through the air of the otherwise peaceful night, the horrifying sound coming from inside the theater across from them. Matching smiles grew on their faces even as their hearts raced,

“What were you saying?” He teased, didn’t wait for her to respond before pulling away to take her hand as they ran towards trouble, giggling like children all the way.

The theater was in absolute chaos, with hordes of people running out of the building, it took them a minute to actually get in, but it was just in time to see what appeared to be a blue ghost come out of an old woman. Rose’s eyes widened as she made a beeline for the woman, the doctor taking off in the direction of the stage. Before she could come anywhere near though, two people were already there, a young woman and an old man, who carried the woman out despite all the chaos. Rose shouted after them, but either went unheard or was ignored. She huffed, then made a decision,

“Doctor! I’m going after them!” She yelled before taking off,

“Be careful!” he shouted back, before turning to the man on the stage. Rose ran outside, her breath coming out in white puffs even as she searched for the people who had abducted that woman. They were stuffing her in the back of their carriage, and Rose didn’t think, just ran over to confront the woman handling the unconscious elderly lady,

“What’re you doing?!”

“Oh, it’s such a tragedy, miss. Me and the master will deal with it.” The girl said, trying to block Rose’s view from the body, “The fact is, this poor lady’s been taken with a brain fever and we have to get her to an infirmary.”

Rose furrowed her brows, sure that the woman was lying but not sure why. She pushed her away, instead reaching to feel the old woman’s forehead, “She’s cold.” Rose muttered, eyes widening when she realized why, “She’s dead! My God, what did you do to her?”

Suddenly, there was a cloth against her mouth and something sweet being stuffed against her nose. Rose struggled, ended up breathing in more of whatever it was, her body growing sluggish and mind growing dark. She cursed mentally, sick and tired of losing consciousness on these adventures with the doctor even as she fought against the man restraining her, his hands reaching for places that made her want to punch him on the nose.

He tightened his hold against her face, and with one last inhale, Rose passed out.

She woke up with a gasp on a table of sorts. Disoriented, she tried to remember how she got where she was and how she had lost track of the Doctor. They were in the past, she remembered. Christmas in Cardiff, and they had found trouble in a theater. She had followed the pair who had kidnapped the old woman- only, she was dead-

Rose froze when she heard something rustle behind her. Quietly, hesitantly, she turned, a scream escaping her lips when she saw one of the bodies laying in the coffin sit up and stare right at her. Getting up on her feet, she ran towards the door, heart seizing when she found it was locked. The man- zombie, was walking closer still, the old woman from earlier joining him, and Rose, grabbing the first thing her hands could find, a glass vase, and threw it at him. 

It did nothing to deter his pace, so Rose started shouting instead,

“Let me out!” She banged against the door, “Open the door!” 

The zombie grabbed her then, his hands, cold and hard, one muffling her voice and the other squeezing her throat and Rose shut her eyes, trying to pull away or push him back, but for someone who was essentially dead, the man had an incredibly powerful grip. Just then, the door banged open, 

“I think this is my dance.” The doctor said, grabbing her by the waist and firmly pulling her into him. She slumped against him in relief, breathing heavily and trying to curb down her panic,

“It’s a prank? It must be! We’re in some kind of a mesmeric influence!” A man standing a little ways behind the Doctor exclaimed,

“No, we’re not. The dead are walking.” The Doctor replied, and then grinned down at Rose, “Hello.”

_ Blimey, was his smile always that beautiful? _

Rose grinned back automatically, “Hello.” She remembered who he had been talking to before then, “Who's your friend?”

“Charles Dickens.” He answered airily, and Rose, maybe still a little light-headed, answered just as nonchalantly,

“Oh. Okay.”

The Doctor turned back to the zombies with a glare, his face hardened, “My name’s the Doctor. Who are you then? What do you want?”

“We’re failing.” The corpses replied, their voices sending a chill down Rose’s spine from how detached and cold they sounded, “Open the rift, we’re dying. Trapped in this form, cannot sustain us, help us.”

The corpses rose their heads to the ceiling, the blue gas from before leaving them with a wailing sound, Rose watched, fascinated and disturbed as the gas floated towards the unlit lamps, once again, going into the walls of the house. The Doctor placed his hands on her shoulders, turning her around so that she was facing him, his eyes sharp on her neck,

“Are you hurt?” He asked, even as a hand trailed up her shoulder, fingers ghosting over the light bruises that were forming. Rose shook her head, feeling her mind race at his proximity,

“No, no. I’m fine.” She turned around and flinched when she saw the corpses, crumbled on the floor now that they weren’t possessed anymore, “Doctor, what were they?”

The Doctor sighed, looked up at the heavens even as he brushed a lock of hair from Rose’s face, tucking it behind her ear, “I have no idea.”

\---

The Doctor watched Rose pace the parlor, her stomps short and angry and he couldn’t help the warm affection that filled his chest at the sight. She rounded on the old man, Mr.Sneed, he had introduced himself, with a glare, hands on her hips, and looking as intimidating as an angry chihuahua in her pretty skirt,

“First of all you drug me, then you kidnap me, and don’t think I didn’t feel your hands having a quick wander you dirty old man!”

The Doctor grinned as Mr.Sneed paled at the accusation, but Rose didn’t give him a moment to protest-

“I won’t be spoken to like this!” He tried to stand, but another threatening step forward by Rose and he had slumped back in his seat,

“-Then you stuck me in a room full of zombies!” She continued, as if she hadn’t been interrupted at all, “And if that ain’t enough, you swan off! And leave me to die! So, come on! Talk!”

“It’s not my fault! It’s this house! It always had a reputation. Haunted. But, I never had such a bother until a few months back-”

“That’s when the bodies started coming alive?” The Doctor asked, 

Charles stood up at Mr.Sneed’s answering nod, “Tommyrot!”

“You witnessed it! Can’t keep the beggars down, sir. They walk. Sir, it’s the queerest thing that they hang on to scraps-”

The Doctor’s attention was diverted when the maid, Gwyneth, brought him a cup of tea, “Two sugars, sir. Just how you like it.” 

He blinked, took it without a word. He hadn’t said anything about his preferences. He watched Gwyneth make another cup, a splash of milk and three sugars, before presenting it to Rose, who smiled happily as she took a sip. 

First gas ghosts, and now a servant girl who could read minds. Something was clearly very wrong with this house.

Mr.Sneed was still going on about all the bodies that were getting out of their coffins, but it seemed like Dickens had had enough, “Morbid Fancy!” He accused sharply. It made the Doctor mad, human beings refusing to open their horizons because they liked the tiny bubble of possibilities and impossibilities they had wrapped themselves in. The fact that it was Charles Dickens, _The_ Charles Dickens who was being do deliberately obtuse only served to grate on his nerves further,

“Oh, Charles, you were there.” He snarked,

“I saw nothing but an illusion.” Charles insisted,

“If you’re going to deny it, don’t waste my time. Just _shut up_!” The man gasped, stunned at his audacity, but the Doctor paid him no mind. He turned to Mr.Sneed, “What about the gas?”

“That’s new, sir. Never seen anything like it.”

“Means it’s getting stronger. The rift’s getting wider and something’s sneaking through.”

“What’s the rift?” Rose asked,

“I was going to tell you about it earlier. It’s a weak point in space and time. The connection between this place and another. That’s the cause of most ghost stories, most of the time.” The Doctor explained, “There’s a rift going right through this house, here in Cardiff, in all of time.”

“That’s why I got the house so cheap!” Mr.Sneed exclaimed, “Stories going back generations. Echoes in the dark. Queer songs in the air and this feeling like a… shadow. Passing over your soul. Mind you, it’s been good for business. Just what people expect from a gloomy old trade like mine.”

Rose watched Gwyneth clean up the tea things and bring the tray into the kitchen, after hesitating a moment, she decided to follow. There was something… different about that girl. She seemed a bit too calm. As if she was too used to such supernatural things. She bit her lip when she saw Gwyneth start to clean up, and then decided the best way to start conversation would be to start helping with the chores,

“Please, miss! You shouldn’t be helping! It’s not right!” Gwyneth protested when she saw Rose start up on the dishes, but Rose shook her head,

“Don’t be daft. Sneed works you to death.” She wrung one of the dish clothes dry, then passed it over, “How much do you get paid?”

“Eight pounds a year, miss.” Rose’s eyes widened,

“That much?” God, Rose didn’t think she could last a fortnight on eight pounds.

“I know. I would’ve been happy with six.” She blinked, then shook her head, deciding to change the subject,

“What about school? Did you go to school?”

“Of course I did. What do you think I am? An urchin? I went every Sunday, nice and proper.”

“What? Once a week?” That, honestly, sounded like heaven.

“We did sums and everything. To be honest, I hated every second of it.”

Rose bit her lip to hide her grin. She was her type of girl, this Gwyneth. “Me too.” 

They laughed, Gwyneth’s shoulder’s relaxing a little at Rose’s easy nature, though she was surprised that a lady dressed as expensive as Lady Rose would be so frank with her, She looked away, wondered if she would end up crossing a line by disclosing this, but then decided to speak anyway, “Don’t tell anyone, but one time, I didn’t go and ran on the heath all on my own!”

Rose giggled, nodded in agreement, “I did plenty of that. Me and my mate Shareen. And we used to go and look at boys!”

Gwyneth stopped laughing immediately, then turned around back to her dishes, properly scandalized, “Well, I don’t know much about that, miss.”

“Oh come on!” Rose cajoled, “Times haven’t changed that much! I bet you’ve done the same.”

“I don’t think so, miss.” But, she was cracking, Rose could see her lips begging to turn up in a smile. She pushed a little further,

“Gwyneth! You can tell me! Bet you’ve got your eyes on someone!”

Gwyneth hesitated, then flushed, turning back to face Rose with a sweet smile on her face, “Oh, I suppose.. There is this one lad.” At Rose’s encouraging grin, she continued, “The butcher’s boy. He comes by every Tuesday. Such a lovely smile on him!”

Rose bit her lip, thought of the Doctor’s goofy grin from just a while ago when he had rescued her from those zombies, “Oh, I like a nice smile. Good smile, nice bum.”

“Well, I have never heard the like!” Gwyneth gasped, once again, scandalized. It made Rose laugh, how easy it was to furl some people’s feathers. 

“Ask him out.” Rose said, placing both her hands over Gwyneth’s, “Give him a cup of tea or something. That’s a nice start.”

Gwyneth looked at her as if she were a puzzle she couldn’t solve, “I swear, it’s the strangest thing, miss. You’ve got all the clothes and the breeding, but you talk like some sort of wild thing! Like a wolf, a she-wolf.”

Her words made Rose hesitate, a little self-conscious. She was under no illusion that a rich dress and nice shoes would suddenly make her high society, but it was a little embarrassing to be seen through so thoroughly. She tried to hide behind a smile, change the subject again, “Maybe I am. Maybe it’s a good thing. You need a little more than Mr.Sneed in your life.”

“Ah, that’s not fair! He’s not so bad, old Sneed. He was very kind to me to take me in, after my mum and dad died of the flu when I was twelve.”

“Oh.” Rose subdued, thinking of her own father, the only memories of him she had were of old photographs and scratchy VHS home tapes, “I’m so sorry.”

“Thank you, miss. But, I’ll be with them again, one day. Sitting with them in paradise. I should be so blessed. They’re waiting for me. Maybe you’re dad’s up there waiting for you too, miss.”

“Maybe.” She mumbled, then jerked in surprise when she realized- “Who told you he was dead?” She didn’t mean it to come off as accusatory as it did, and cringed when Gwyneth panicked,

“I don’t know. Must have been the Doctor.”

The Doctor didn’t know about her father either, Rose knew. He might have guessed, when he had found out she only lived with her mum, but she had never told him. Rose shook her head, that hardly mattered,

“My father died years back. I was just a baby.” She confided, and then smiled a little sadly when this time, it was Gwyneth who took her hands in her own,

“You’ve been thinking about him lately. More than ever.”

“I suppose.” She had just upended her entire life on the whims of another man. For the second time in her rather short life at that. Jimmy had turned out to be an enormous mistake. She couldn’t help but wonder about what her father would make of the Doctor, “How do you know all this?”

“Mr.Sneed says I think too much. I’m all alone down here. I bet you’ve got dozens of servants, haven’t you, miss?”

Rose laughed at the absurdity of that question. She grew up babysitting neighbor’s kids for pocket money. The idea of having a maid had never crossed her mind, “No. No servants where I come from.”

“And you’ve come such a long way.” There was an odd quality to her voice now, airy and otherworldly and distant, Rose found herself taking a step forward, “You’re from London. I’ve seen London in drawings, but never like that. All those people rushing about, metal boxes and metal birds. Metal birds with people flying in them. And yet, even that’s not where you belong-”

“What-”

“You’re surrounded by stars. You burn with them. And you wear time around you like perfume. You’re so young and yet you’re ancient.” Gwyneth exhaled, her breaths coming faster, eyes growing wider even as she saw things nobody else had ever seen, “The things you’ve seen, the things you will see- You will thrive in the emptiness, you’re a wild,  _ wild  _ thing, miss. Like a big bad wolf.”

Gwyneth staggered back, flinching when Rose tried to help, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, miss.”

“It’s okay.” Rose hesitated, those words still ringing in her ears. She shook her head, tried to reach out for Gwyneth again, “It’s alright.”

“I can’t help it! Ever since I was a little girl. My mum said I had the sight. She told me to hide it!”

“But, it’s getting stronger. More powerful, isn’t it?” They both jerked at the third voice, and Rose turned to see the Doctor leaning against the doorway, looking worried. She wondered how much of that he had heard. 

“All the time, sir. Every night. Voices in my head.” Gwyneth answered him, looking ashamed.

“You grew up on top of the rift. You’re part of it. You’re the key.”

“I’ve tried to make sense of it, sir. Consulted with spiritualists, table wrappers, all sorts.”

“Well, that should help. You’re going to show us what to do.”

Rose frowned, “What are we going to do?”

The Doctor grinned at her, “We’re going to have a séance.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and that's part one complete! Thank you for all the kudos and feedback last chapter. It's always appreciated ;)
> 
> i'm thinking of making the updates more frequent, if for nothing else but because i have sooo many ideas that date through sooo many seasons and i just want to write them all ><
> 
> anyway, thank you for reading! if you want to talk to me or read some of my other works, you can always follow me on:
> 
> tumblr: [@ymnfilter](https://ymnfilter.tumblr.com)  
> twitter: [@ymnfilter](https://twitter.com/ymnfilter)


	7. Episode 3: The Quiet Undead [Part 2]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is the final part for this episode. 
> 
> i had found the original the unquiet dead a bit problematic in the sense that Rose was pretty much ignored the entire episode. which you know, made a bit of sense considering the doctor had just met her. but, it all goes a bit differently in this chapter. i hope you like it ^_^
> 
> HAPPY READING!
> 
> p.s. if you want to talk to me or read some of my other works, you can always follow me on:
> 
> tumblr: [@ymnfilter](https://ymnfilter.tumblr.com)  
> twitter: [@ymnfilter](https://twitter.com/ymnfilter)

Charles Dickens just wasn’t having it. The seances, the gaseous ghosts, the dead people coming alive. The man was loath to believe in any of it. The Doctor was slightly disappointed. He had expected a little more from a man as great as The Charles Dickens. And the deliberate ignorance was getting on his nerves. 

“Now, open mind, Charlie!” The Doctor tried to encourage after another snide jibe from the man himself, “I love a happy medium!”

The pun flew over everyone’s heads except Rose’s, the brilliant woman that she was, and she snorted in aborted amusement, “I can’t believe you just said that.” She chided. He grinned back at her in response even as he tried to curb the worry that had been churning in his mind since Gwyneth had accidentally used her  _ sight  _ on Rose-

_ You’re surrounded with stars. You burn with them. _

_ You will thrive in the emptiness. _

_ Like a Big Bad Wolf. _

Vaguely, he remembered one of the titles he had read in The Library back in his seventh incarnation when he had been trying to find out about his Sweetheart, timelines damned.  _ The Bad Wolf.  _ The title had said, and here it was again. 

It could’ve just been a coincidence, but the Doctor knew better by now to believe  _ that.  _ The universe was really never so kind. 

“Doctor?” He jerked at Rose’s voice, realized he had let his thoughts run off, and reigned himself in. He gave Rose a reassuring smile before straightening up and cajoling Charles again, “Come on, we might need you.”

Dickens, though still grumpy and disbelieving, nodded his assent, and the Doctor turned to the maid, “Good. Now, Gwyneth, reach out.”

The séance was almost exactly what one might find while watching a bad horror movie. With gas lamps flickering and eerie noises and paper’s flying. The Doctor would’ve been amused at the creatures’ antics if he wasn’t so angry, because it was no doubt, a creature. And alien of some kind, because ghosts didn’t exist. And it was only a matter of time before the Doctor found out how to deal with it.

Suddenly, gaseous figures filled the room, standing tall behind Gwyneth’s prone form as if they were guardians or some kind,

“What are they saying?” Rose asked, looking equal parts terrified and fascinated by the things. 

“They can’t get through the rift.” The Doctor replied, “Gwyneth, it’s not controlling you, you’re controlling them, now look deep. Allow them through.”

"I can't."

“Yes, you can. Just believe it. I have faith in you, Gwyneth. Just make the link.”

Gwyneth looked pained, but she tried. And then suddenly, opened her eyes wide, “Yes.” She breathed out just as the figures behind her came alive,

“Great God!” Sneed shouted, “Spirits from the other side!”

“The other side of the universe.” The Doctor corrected him absentmindedly, his attention on their foreign guests,

“Pity us! Pity the Gelth. There is so little time. Help us!”

“What do you want us to do?”

“The rift. Take the girl. Make a bridge.”

The Doctor narrowed his eyes, “What for?”

“We are so very few. The last of our kind. We face extinction.”

Rose watched as those words worked like magic on the Doctor. All his suspicion, all his curiosity, taking a backseat as understanding dawned. He sympathized, she realized suddenly, but it was more than that. There was guilt in his eyes. Guilt she didn’t understand, because how could whatever was happening with the Gelth be his fault?

“Why?” The Doctor asked, though, Rose suspected, at least a part of him already knew, “What happened?”

“Once we had a physical form like you. And then the war came.”

“War? What war?”

“The Time war.” The Doctor turned his head, his eyes met with Rose’s, and she almost gasped at the pain that she saw in them, “The whole universe convulsed. The Time War raged invisible to the smaller species but devastating to higher forms. Our bodies wasted away. We’re trapped in this gaseous state.”

“So, that’s why you need corpses.” The Doctor summarized.

“We want to stand tall. To feel the sunlight. To live again. We need a physical form, and your dead are abandoned. They’re going to waste. Give them to us!”

“But, we can’t!” Rose argued, and was stunned it was the Doctor who tried to protest,

“And why not?” He demanded. 

Her eyes widened, “Doctor! It’s not-”

“What? Not decent? Not polite? It could save their lives.”

She could tell it was about more than that though. They may not have known each other very long, but the Doctor’s eyes were an open book to her. The pain, the guilt. The desperate need to put everything right. He wasn’t thinking clearly, she knew. She didn’t know how, but he was too attached to this situation, to the plight of the Gelth to think about this clearly. 

“Open the Rift!” The Gelth said, breaking their stare, “Let the Gelth through. We’re dying. Help us. Pity the Gelth.”

They disappeared suddenly, and Gwyneth collapsed. Rose was by her side in a moment, helping her out of the chair and onto the chaise lounge at the other side of the room. The Doctor was silent, brooding, while the other two occupants in the room sat, stunned. Dickens suddenly shook his head and stalked out of the room.

Rose sighed, brushed some of Gwyneth’s hair from her face. She took her temperature, and worried when she ran a little too hot. She walked back to the kitchen to get a washcloth, and brought it back after soaking it in cold water. She placed it gently on the girl’s forehead, sighing slightly when her tightened features loosened a little. She turned to the Doctor then, who was trying to pretend he wasn’t looking at her, but absolutely was. She tried to give him a smile, but it came out a little too watery and broken to last. She extended a hand to him, a silent request to come with her and after a reluctant sigh, as if he couldn’t have refused even if he wanted to, he took her hand and guided them out.

Once they were far enough away from the rest of the people in the house that there was no chance of eavesdropping, she stopped, and then tilted her head up to look at him,

“I’m sorry.” He started, without prompting, “First the plastic mannequins, then evil cat nurses and zombie patients and Cassandra. And now this. It really hasn’t been a very good adventure, has it?”

She shook her head, grinned a little, “Are you kidding me, Doctor? I’m currently standing in 1869. A few hours ago, we were having chips in the year _five_ _ billion _ . This is- this is  _ brilliant _ .”

He smiled back ruefully, “Despite all the running?” He teased, and Rose was grateful to see a bit of darkness retreat back from his eyes,

“I think, Doctor.” She teased back, squirmed a little closer to grin up at him cheekily, a hint of tongue that she knew he couldn’t help but stare at, “I think I especially _love_ the running.”

“Ah. My kind of girl then.” He relaxed, leaning against the wall and pulled her a little closer by their still intertwined hands, they stared at each other, quiet for a few moments, and when Rose spoke next, the air was decidedly heavier,

“What’s the time war, Doctor?” She whispered, they were standing close enough she didn’t need to speak any louder. The Doctor stiffened, tried to pull his hand away but she held firm, “First the Nestene Consciousness and now the Gelth. They both mentioned it. And both times, you just-”

“I just what?” His tone was gruff, a little short, and she knew she would have to tread carefully.

“You lost all fight in you.” She mumbled up at him, trying to uncover what the storms raging behind his dark eyes hid, “It was like- I don’t know, Doctor. But, you felt guilty.”

The Doctor clenched his jaw, stared at her with hard eyes. She didn’t understand, but only because she didn’t know. He had been so glad to find such easy understanding from the future version of her when he had been in his eighth incarnation. Had been pleased and relieved and in love and foolish. He hadn’t thought that someday,  _ he _ would have to actually open up and talk about it to her. He had been so busy relishing in her forgiveness and acceptance, he hadn’t even thought about how that forgiveness and acceptance might have first come to be.

“You are so young.” He breathed out, maybe for the first time realizing that  _ this _ Rose was different than the woman he had met all those times in the past. Still brilliant, still special, still the very great love of his lives, but this Rose was just- so,  _ so _ young. 

Rose froze, then glared up at him, indignant, “I’m not a  _ child _ , Doctor.”

_ Oh, but she was. _

He sighed, pulled her a little closer still, bringing in her for a hug. She was tense in his arms even as she wrapped her own around him, and he smiled softly, a little sadly, brushing his lips feather-light against her hair,

“The Last Great Time War.” He exhaled, “It was the biggest war that ever happened, spanning the entire universe. Billions of people, millions of planets died.” He paused, gulped, “All of my people died.”

Rose jerked, pulled away just enough to look at him. His eyes were closed, but his face was tight with pain. Her lips parted, “Doctor-”

“I’m a Time Lord.” He whispered, cutting her off, “I’m the last of the Time Lords.”

“Doctor, I’m so sorry-” She tried to stop him, didn’t want him to relive something that was so plainly painful for him. But it was as if now that he had started, he just couldn’t stop. He just held her to him like a security blanket and continued speaking in that same low, harsh tone-

"They're all gone. I'm the only survivor. I'm left traveling on my own cause there is no one else."

Her eyes were bright when she looked up at him, plump lips wobbling slightly in an effort to keep the tears at bay, "There's me." She answered timidly. It was a question as much as it was a promise.  _ Will you let me stay forever? Because, I swear I won't leave.  _

He gave her a heartbreaking smile, a little silent,  _ yes, there is.  _ But then his face fell, and he cleared his throat, 

“It was just- all of these people- the Gelth, the Nestene, it’s all my fault.”

“No, it’s not-” She tried to argue, but he wouldn’t listen, just shook his head and insisted it was.

“Yes, it is. I couldn’t help them. I tried- Rose, I tried to save them-”

“I know you did.” She soothed, “That’s all you’ve done from the moment I’ve met you. You’ve just tried to save people.”

“I’m not very good at it.” He admitted, a cold smile fleeting over his face before it hardened again,

“I disagree.” She retorted. Leaned away to cup his face with both her hands, “I think you’re doing a fantastic job.”

He stared down at her, waited for her to demand explanations, details. She was a curious little thing, his Rose Tyler, always with a million questions ready at the tip of her tongue, and yet, at this moment, she seemed at peace with his vague statements and half truths. She smiled up at him serenely, and he realized that she might be young, but she was so, _so_ much stronger than him.

“Precious girl.” He murmured softly, watched as her eyes softened to a warm, caramel brown, before she threw her arms around his shoulders in a tight hug. He sighed against her, held her back just as tightly, and basked in the feeling. 

_ Rose Tyler _ , he decided right then,  _ gave the absolute best hugs. _

The moment stretched too long, and when they pulled away, the Doctor did his best to compose himself. They had work to do here. Lives to save.

“We’re going to have to open the rift.” He told her, and wasn’t at all surprised when she shook her head,

“No. They need Gwyneth. I can’t allow them to use her for- for-”

“For what? Opening a bridge? Rose, it’s not like they will hurt her.”

“You don’t know that, Doctor.” She frowned up at him, “If they really were as peaceful as they were pretending to be during that séance, do you really think they would’ve killed that old woman’s grandson? Or that they would’ve tried to choke me to death?”

And well, she did have a point there. He pressed his lips tight. He couldn’t just- leave them either though. With or without their help, they were getting stronger. 

“Besides, these people- these dead people- they’re somebody’s  _ family _ . Somebody’s son or daughter or father or mother. What would happen to them when they just see their- dead relatives walking about in the streets all of a sudden?”

The Doctor sighed, looked away. He didn’t have a counter argument for that. This was a cultural issue, he supposed. Maybe on another planet, or in another time, they could’ve gotten away with it. But, on Earth, in 1869- it could drastically change the future- and maybe not for the better. But then again,

“You heard what they said, Rose. They are few in number. The last of their kind. How can we just- let them fade away?”

That seemed to stump her, but she gritted her teeth and shook her head, “I don’t care. They’re not having her.”

“Don’t I get a say, miss?” They jumped apart when another voice joined their conversation, and turned to see Gwyneth standing at the other side of the corridor, heavily leaning against the wall.

“Gwyneth!” Rose walked over to support her weight a bit, “How are you feeling? Should you be moving around?”

“I’m fine, miss.” She turned to the Doctor, “I’ve heard them, Doctor. My angels. They’re asking for my help. I want to save them.”

“Gwyneth, you don’t understand-” Rose tried to say, took a step forward,

“You would say that, miss. Because, that’s very clear inside your head, that you think I’m stupid.”

Rose recoiled as if stung, though Gwyneth’s tone had in no way been reproachful. She hadn’t thought Gwyneth stupid. Not deliberately. Not in the sense that she thought Gwyneth incapable. It was just- she was so  _ innocent _ . To her, the height of rebellion was skipping a day of school and she was scandalized at the idea of fancying a bloke. She thought Mr.Sneed a good man when he very much was  _ not  _ and Rose just- Rose just wanted to protect her.

“That’s not fair-”

“It’s true, though. Things might be different where you’re from, but here and now, the angels need me.” She turned back to the Doctor, “Doctor, what do I have to do?”

“Rose is right.” He tried to protest, though his heart wasn’t in it. He knew she had a point, but he also knew he did too. He couldn’t just leave the Gelth be as it were. He at least had to try, “You don’t have to do anything.”

“They’ve been singing to me since I was a child. Sent by my mum on a holy mission. So tell me.”

The Doctor nodded even as beside him, Rose sighed in defeat. But, she followed them back to the room where Mr.Sneed was in, still sitting in the same seat he had occupied during the séance, a glass of whisky in hand as he tried to digest everything he had learned. Charles had come back too, and looked much more stable than he had been before.

“We need to find the rift.” He announced to the room, “The house is on a weak spot, so there must be a spot that’s weaker than all the others.” He thought to himself, then abruptly turned to Mr.Sneed, “Mr.Sneed, what’s the weakest part of this house? The place where most of the ghosts have been seen?”

“That would be the morgue.”

Rose frowned, crossed her arms over her chest, of course it would have been a morgue. Because this entire adventure wasn’t enough like a really bad B rated horror movie, “No chance you were going to say ‘gazebo’, was there?”

The Doctor grinned at her petulance before taking her hand and giving it a squeeze. Second trip together, and already they were at odds. Something told the Doctor that it won’t be the last time they will have disagreements like this, and though he hated to fight with Rose Tyler, he was infinitely glad she was someone he could rely on for a fresher, more different perspective. 

He had no need for companions who just agreed with him on everything.

\---

The morgue was in the basement of the house, a damp, bleak open space with rows and rows of corpses covered in white sheets. Rose shuddered, and next to her, even the Doctor seemed to tense. 

“Talk about Bleak House.” He muttered softly, and Rose rolled her eyes at yet another pun. She shook her head, turned to look up at him, 

“The thing is Doctor, the Gelth don’t succeed.” She implored, “Cause I know they don’t. I know for a fact that there weren’t corpses walking around in 1869.”

“Time’s always in flux, Rose.” The Doctor explained, “It’s changing every second. Your cozy little world could be rewritten like that.” He said, and snapped his fingers. She frowned at his hand,

“But, do we really want corpses walking around in the future?” She couldn’t help but ask. Maybe she couldn’t understand him because he was so alien, but just the idea of zombies becoming normal back in her time gave her the shudders. 

The Doctor furrowed his brows, looked as if he might agree, but before he could respond, the Gelth appeared before them,

“You have come to help! Praise the Doctor! Praise him!”

“I’ll take you someplace else after this transfer.” The Doctor told them, “Somewhere you can build proper bodies. This isn’t a permanent solution, do you understand?”

She looked up at him, the tiniest of smiles building on her lips. It still surprised her, that he listened to her, and she gave his hand a grateful squeeze. The Gelth didn’t reply, instead, just continued pleading,

“Promise you won’t hurt Gwyneth.” She asked, but they ignored her too,

“Hurry! Please, so little time! Pity the Gelth!”

“My angels!” Gwyneth sighed, “I can help them live.”

“Okay, where is the weak point?” The Doctor asked, 

The Gelth moved over to stand under the arch build in the center of the room, “Here. Under the arch.” Gwyneth didn’t wait, didn’t hesitate, just moved over to stand beneath. Rose couldn’t help but try one last time. She rushed over to the other girl, holding her hands in hers,

“Gwyneth, really. You don’t have to do this.”

Gwyneth pulled her hands away, placed them over Rose’s cheeks to cup her face, “My angels.” She pleaded, and Rose knew there was no other choice but to let her go. She stumbled back, biting her lip even as she watched the Gelth grab hold of Gwyneth,

“Establish the bridge! Reach out to the void! Let us through!”

“Yes!” Gwyneth shouted, “Yes, I can see you! Come through!”

Rose watched, felt sick, as the bridge established, as hundreds and hundreds of gaseous beings started descending from the arch. The Gelth at the helm suddenly turned a violent shade of red, and she knew every bad feeling she had had about this had suddenly come true,

“There are an awful lot of them, aren’t there?” Dickens stuttered out, already staggering backwards, “You said you were few in number!” He yelled,

“A few billion.” The Gelth snickered, “And all of us in need of corpses.”

The Doctor was frozen next to her. His eyes wide and unblinking as he took in the scene. She clutched at his jacket, a ‘told you so’ building up in her throat and dying right there when she saw the expression on his face. 

She had never seen him look so  _ confused _ before.

To lie to someone about being alone was one thing. But, to use that lie on someone who  _ was  _ all  alone. 

Suddenly, Rose felt inexplicably angry.

The bodies around them rose as the Gelth took over, and Mr.Sneed ran over to pull Gwyneth back, but she didn’t budge an inch, “Gwyneth, stop this! Listen to your master. This has gone far enough! Stop dabbling, child! Leave these things alone, I beg of you!”

One of the bodies moved behind him, and Rose shouted a warning, “Mr.Sneed, get back!” But, before he could react, the Gelth had him, and the corpse twisted his neck till Mr.Sneed collapsed, and another gaseous being took possession of his body. Rose whimpered.

“I think it’s gone a bit wrong.” The Doctor said, trying for nonchalance and failing miserably. His hand searched out for Rose’s and held tight for dear life when he found purchase.

“I have joined the legion of Gelth! Come, march with us!” Mr.Sneed said in a voice that wasn’t his anymore as he stumbled closer. The Doctor and Rose stumbled back, knowing they would be cornered any moment but not being able to think of anything else.

“We need bodies. All of you, dead. The human race, dead.”

“Gwyneth, stop them!” The Doctor yelled, “Send them back, now!”

Dickens watched the dead men advance, and just- couldn’t take it. He shook his head even as he felt sick at the idea of leaving anyone behind, “I can’t- I’m sorry.” And he ran.

The Doctor paid him no mind, instead, he looked behind him at the dungeon door and quickly pushed Rose behind it, getting in after her and shutting the bars behind them,

“Give yourself to glory! Sacrifice yourselves for the Gelth!” The corpses clambered towards the Dungeon, their hands trying to reach for them even as the bars held them back. The Doctor pushed Rose further back till the both of them were plastered against the far end of the wall,

“I trusted you!” The Doctor glared, even as fear trickled down his spine. Not for himself but for the woman beside him, who was clutching onto his sleeve as if this entire thing wasn’t his fault, “I pitied you!” 

“We don’t want your pity! We want this world and all it’s flesh!”

“Not while I’m alive.” The Doctor swore,

“Then live no more.”

The bars rattled, and Rose shrieked. The Doctor pulled his sleeve out of her hand and wrapped his own around it instead,

“I’m so sorry. This is my fault.”

“It’s not your fault.” She said, not looking away from the Gelth, “I wanted to come.”

He groaned, thumped his head against the wall of the dungeon, “I can’t believe I’m going to die in here. I saw the fall of Troy! World War V! I pushed boxes at the Boston tea party, and now I’m going to die in a dungeon! In Cardiff!”

The disgust in his voice made an aborted laugh well up in Rose’s throat and she almost giggled out loud. Before she could though, the Gelth pushed against the bars of the dungeon once again, managing to crack one of the rusted columns. Suddenly, nothing was funny.

She took a deep breath, shifted her hand in the Doctor’s so that their fingers were intertwined, “We’ll go down fighting, yeah?” She asked, looking up at him.

“Yeah.”

“Together?”

“Yeah!” He smiled down at her, again with that tender affection that always surprised her, “I’m so glad I met you.” He mumbled, looking for all the world,  _ awed  _ by her. She grinned, tongue touched even as embarrassment made her face flush red,

“Me too.”

Their moment was broken when the door to the morgue burst open, Charles Dickens running in with his arms waving frantically all over the place, “Doctor! Turn off the flame and turn up the gas! And now, fill the room, all of it. Now!”

“What are you doing?” The Doctor questioned him, not understanding for a second what gas lamps had to do with the hordes of zombies trying to kill them,

“Turn it all on! Gas the place!”

The Doctor blinked, then grinned manically. Gas. The Gelth were gaseous. Fill the entire place with gas and they would have no choice but to get out of the bodies, “Brilliant!”

“What? What will the gas do?” Rose asked, still looking terrified,

“You fill the room with gas, it’ll draw them out of the host. Suck them into the air like poison from a wound!”

“Yeah, but we’ll just end up choking to death instead.” Rose muttered. The Doctor ignored that remark, instead turning around and smashing the gas line pipe right behind them, instantly the bodies convulsed, the gaseous Gelth being forced out with a scream,

“It’s working!”

Once the bodies trying to advance towards them had fallen, the Doctor and Rose ran back to the arch beneath which Gywneth was still standing, “Gwyneth! Send them back! They lied. They’re not angels.”

“Liars.” Gywneth muttered, her eyes blank and face slack,

“Look at me,” The Doctor gritted out, shaking her by her shoulders, “If your mother and father could look down and see this, they’d tell you the same. They’d give you strength. Now, send them back.”

Beside him, Rose coughed violently, choking on gas, and the Doctor’s jaw tightened, “Charles, get her out.”

Charles tried to grab Rose by the arm, but Rose snatched it back, shaking her head, “I’m not leaving them!”

The Doctor sighed at her stubbornness, endeared even as it irritated him. The fastest way to get Rose out it seemed would be to convince Gwyneth, “Gwyenth, listen to me. Remember that world you saw? Rose’s world? All those people, none of it will exist unless you send them back through the rift.”

Gwyneth shook her head, looked at the Doctor intently, “I can’t send them back. But, I can hold them. Hold them in this place. Hold them here. Get out.” From inside her apron pocket, she pulled out a match box, and Rose gasped, rushing forward,

“You can’t!” The Doctor grabbed at Rose's waist before she got too close and pulled her to his chest, his eyes still on Gwyneth’s. They were still too vacant. Still too dark. With a shaking hand, he reached forward to place his fingers at the nape of her neck, shuddering an exhale when all that met him was cold, still skin.

“Doctor?” Rose looked back at him, eyes wide and voice soft. She seemed to have come to the same conclusion, though the confusion in her eyes told him she didn’t understand.

“There is no pulse.” He replied, pulling his hand back to his side, clenching his fingers in a fist, “She’s dead.”

“No, she’s not.” Rose shook her head, looked back at Gwyneth, “Look at her. She’s looking at us. She was just talking to you.”

The Doctor looked down at Rose, his gaze sad and sympathetic and lovely. Rose coughed again, stumbled even as she felt light-headed from the oxygen. The Doctor didn’t waste another second, picking her up in a bridal carry and running towards the door, Charles dickens right in front of them.

The house blew up behind them just as they stumbled onto the pavement outside, and the Doctor shielded Rose from the pressured heat as well as he could, feeling the strongest urge to protect when she curled into a tight ball against his chest.

\---

They watched the house burn from a distance, watched people wake up from their own residences at the commotion, watched as chaos ensued. Rose leaned against his chest, her head on his shoulder, “She saved the world.” She sighed, “A servant girl. And no one will know.”

“We will know. You and I.” He turned to look beside him where Charles Dickens stood, watching the proceedings looking enthralled, “Charlie will know.”

“Hmm.”

The Doctor sighed, then nudged her just enough so that he could take his hand in hers, “Come on. We should get going.”

She nodded, and together, with Charles Dickens, they rode back to where they had parked the TARDIS. She was waiting for them at the sidewalk, her hum a bit melancholic. Rose smiled, placed a hand on the exterior of the ship in gratitude.

“Right then, Charlie-boy!” The Doctor turned to Charles Dickens with a grin, “We’ve just got to go into my- um.. Shed. Won’t be long!”

Rose turned to Dickens too while the Doctor unlocked the TARDIS, “What are you going to do now?”

“I shall take the mail coach back to London. Quite literally post-haste.” Charlie replied, smiling and looking years younger. “This is no time to be on my own. I shall spend Christmas with my family and make amends to them. After all I’ve learned tonight, there can be nothing more vital.”

“You’ve cheered up.” The Doctor mused, 

“Exceedingly!” Charles cheered, bouncing a bit on his heels, “This morning, I thought I knew everything in this world and now I know I’ve just started! All these huge and wonderful notions, Doctor! I’m inspired. I must write about them.”

“Do you think that’s wise?” Rose asked, getting a little nervous now that the idea that maybe they had changed history. She discreetly looked at the Doctor, but he seemed perfectly fine at his words.

“I shall be subtle at first. The mystery of Edwin Drood still lacks an ending. Perhaps, the killer was not the boy’s uncle. Perhaps, he was not of this earth. The mystery of Edwin Drood and the Blue Elementals. I can spread the word! Tell the truth!”

The Doctor laughed, shook Charles hand enthusiastically, “Good luck with that. It was nice to meet you. Fantastic, even.”

He began to enter the TARDIS, and Rose made to follow, turning around in the last second to give Charles Dickens a kiss on the cheek, “Bye then. And thank you.”

Charles blushed red, smiling shyly, “Oh my, how modern.” He then turned to the Doctor, “But I don’t understand. In what way is this a goodbye? Where are you going?”

“You’ll see. In the shed.”

“Oh, my soul, Doctor. It’s just one mystery after another with you. Can I ask, who are you?”

The Doctor smiled that enigmatic smile of his that left Rose a little breathless, and said, “Just a friend. Passing through.”

“But, you have such knowledge of future times! I don’t wish to impose on you, but I must ask you. My books, Doctor. Do they last?”

“Oh, yes!”

“For how long?”

“Forever!”

Charles grinned, even as his feet shuffled with shyness. And the Doctor continued with a chuckled, “Right. Rose, into the shed.”

“What?” Charles blinked, “In that box? The both of you?” His voice turned into a squeak at the end of the sentence, and the Doctor gave him a rakish grin,

“Down, boy.” But just for the sake of it, he placed his arm around Rose's waist and pulled her into the TARDIS with a wink. Charle’s scandalized gasp and Rose’s giggles following after he closed the door behind them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and that's the end of the unquiet dead! next episode is Aliens Of London. I'm particularly looking forward to upload that chapter and see what you guys think. 
> 
> **spoiler: there's a bit of a crossover/a future character cameo**
> 
> as always, kudos and comments are always appreciated! We missed the entire 'i'm the last of the time lords' because i switched out the end of the world for new earth instead, but it was an important conversation. and it fit seamlessly in this chapter. Let me know if you liked it!
> 
> thank you for reading!
> 
> p.s. if you want to talk to me or read some of my other works, you can always follow me on:
> 
> tumblr: [@ymnfilter](https://ymnfilter.tumblr.com)  
> twitter: [@ymnfilter](https://twitter.com/ymnfilter)


	8. Episode 4: Aliens In London [Part 1]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A new episode! I know quite a lot of the fandom doesnt really like slitheens, and honestly speaking, they really were kind of stupid, but Aliens in London and World War III are still some of my favorite new who season 1 episodes.
> 
> not! to! mention! there is a surprise cameo from someone in this chapter *wink wink* *nudge nudge*
> 
> i hope you enjoy this. HAPPY READING!
> 
> As always, you can find me on:
> 
> twitter: [@ymnfilter ](https://twitter.com/ymnfilter)
> 
> tumblr: [@ymnfilter ](https://ymnfilter.tumblr.com/)

Rose yawned, the fourth time in the last ten minutes, and leaned against the console to watch the Doctor work on the controls. He had told her they were in the vortex, whatever that was, and as much as Rose wanted more than anything to go on another adventure with this wonderful man, her bones were so heavy with exhaustion, she felt like she weighed a ton.

“I hate to say this, Doctor, I really do.” She started, biting her lip when the Doctor lifted his head from the console to look at her, “But, I think you’re going to have to take me home now.”

The Doctor’s brows furrowed even as he stiffened, “You want to leave?” 

Rose blinked, “Just for the night.” She clarified, “As much as I love the travelling, human little me really does need to sleep.”

The Doctor grinned then, shoulders slumping down in relief even as he skipped over to grab her hand, “Should’ve just said so then.” He tugged her along deeper inside the ship, “The TARDIS can make you a room. You can get a kip. Shower. There’s a galley if you ever get hungry. Though- mind you, it’s been awhile since I’ve been grocery shopping. But, the TARDIS does make these nutritional bars. Tastes of whatever you want it to taste like-”

He was rambling. Rose pressed her lips together to stop herself from laughing even as she skipped along with him. He hadn’t wanted her to go home. Hadn’t wanted her to leave. It should’ve been obvious considering he had come back for her, but it made her happy nonetheless.

“Doctor.” She cut him off before he could go along for too long,

“Hmm?” They stopped in the middle of the hallway, the Doctor turning to look at her,

“The TARDIS can really make an entire room just for me?”

He grinned, “Isn’t she fantastic?”

Rose’s smile was just as wide in response, “Yeah. Yeah, she really is.”

They turned another corner, and right there, was a wooden door painted white, a wreath of pink and yellow roses hanging in the middle. Rose grinned as she and the Doctor paused in front of it,

“There you are.” The Doctor motioned at the wreath, “Roses for Rose Tyler. Can never accuse the TARDIS of subtlety.”

“Oh hush!” Rose swatted at his leather clad shoulder and then looked up at the ceiling, “Don’t listen to him, Darling. I love it.”

The Doctor raised a brow at the endearment, but didn’t comment, instead opening the door and leading her inside. The room was minimalistic but spacious, white walls with rose gold accents, cherry wood furniture and marble flooring. There were empty bookshelves and storage spaces that invited Rose to collect trinkets for them. Against one of the walls, there was a queen sized mattress with the fluffiest bedding Rose had ever felt. She walked in further, opening one of the doors and finding it to be a walk-in closet, already filled with racks of sleepwear, jeans, shirts, dresses. Another door led to an ensuite with a soaking tub, a shower cubicle and a large vanity, also repeating the same color scheme that had been used in her bedroom.

By the time Rose walked back to the Doctor, her eyes were wide and lips parted in surprise. The Doctor gave her a smug grin,

“Everything to your liking?”

She looked around again. The room was fairly bare at the moment, but what surprised Rose was that she could see herself personalizing it. Buying trinkets from all the planets or places she visited with the Doctor, maybe creating a few art pieces herself to hang on the walls. Her room back at the Estate had remained unchanged since she was eight years old. This- this felt like something the girl she was now would love to live in.

“It’s perfect.” She said, patting the wall closest to her so that the TARDIS knew she was talking to the both of them, “Thank you.”

The Doctor’s smile softened, and he took a step back out of the room, “Get some sleep, Rose.”

She nodded, “Good night, Doctor.” 

The Doctor was already walking down the hallway, but he called out behind his shoulder, “No nights in the vortex, Rose Tyler.”

She shook her head, then turned around to go to the ensuite. As much as she loved the dress she had worn in Cardiff, she was really looking forward to a good night’s sleep in those cotton shorts she had seen in her closet before.

\---

Rose woke up on a cloud. At least, that’s what it felt like. The unmarred white ceiling she saw when she blinked open her eyes gave her a pause, and she sat up to survey the room she was in, a smile growing on her face as she remembered where she was and all that had happened in the last few days. She was in the TARDIS. She was in her own room inside the TARDIS. And she had slept like a baby.

The lights in the room brightened slowly as she blinked away the sleep from her eyes and got up to get ready. The dress she had discarded last night was nowhere to be found. Instead, the TARDIS had taken it upon herself to set out the clothes she had originally worn when she had come in, mysteriously washed and pressed, and Rose, after sending her a quiet thank you, changed into them.

The smell of something baking reached her when she opened her bedroom door, and she followed it to the ship’s kitchen, the galley, the Doctor had called it. He was sitting on the island, a cup of tea in front of him, but smiled when he saw her come in,

“Hello. I was right yesterday about the grocery shopping. There really isn’t anything except tea and some banana bread.” He greeted, motioning towards the loaf of bread cooling on a rack near the stoves, “Sleep well?”

“Like an absolute baby.” She groaned, joining him. He passed her a mug, and she went about making herself a cuppa, “So, where are we going today?”

“How about Earth? 2005. Powell Estates, London.”

Rose blinked, “You want to take me home?”

“I thought you might want to visit.” The Doctor shrugged, “Only if you want to though. I would much rather we didn’t-”

She perked up, cutting him off, “I want to!” The Doctor sighed at her, a sort of helplessly endeared look taking over his face at the sight of her excitement over something so simple, “I didn’t really explain any of this to mum before I left. I don’t want her to worry too much.”

“Rose, time machine, remember? We could travel for days and I could still take you back to the next second from where I picked you up.”

“Really?”

“Well, maybe not the next second.” The Doctor shrugged, “But, a few hours, sure.”

“Still. I would much rather we visited now. Get it over with, you know?”

“Okay. And then, after that maybe I’ll take you to a proper alien planet. Something not Earth. Or any other variation of it.”

She grinned at him, “That sounds lovely.”

\--

The Powell Estates was fairly deserted when they landed. It was still early in the morning. The Doctor looked around, getting out of the TARDIS to let Rose could come out after him,

“There we go.” The Doctor announced, leaning against the TARDIS, “Just like I said, 21st Century Earth, London, Powell Estates.”

Rose grinned at him with a giddy smile, travelling in the TARDIS, no matter how many times she experienced it, never got old, “How long have I been gone?”

“About 12 hours give or take.” She laughed at his cocky shrug off, shook her head.

“Okay. Right, I won’t be long. Just wanna go see my mum.”

“What are you going to tell her?”

“Ah, let’s see. I’ve been to the year five billion?” She replied with a cheeky smile, and the Doctor snorted in response, “Nah. I’ll just tell her I spent the night at Shareen’s. See you later.” She turned and waved, but stopped again after a few steps to look back at him pointedly, “Don’t you disappear.”

The Doctor gave her an easy smile, “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

He watched her leave, and then settled to wait for her with his back to his ship and arms crossed over his chest. It quickly grew boring though. The Doctor had never been a patient man, and Rasillon only knew how long Rose would be. He pushed himself off the TARDIS, and began wandering the neighborhood. It was then that he noticed it, 

A missing poster stuck to the lamp post amongst half a dozen others. Only, this one was asking after his Rose Tyler. 19 years old, 5’4’’, blonde hair and slim build. The Doctor staggered back, then looked around on the ground, finding a fairly new discarded newspaper that was dated for March 2006.

  1. He’d brought her a year late.



The Doctor ran.

The Tyler women were clinging to each other when the Doctor slammed open the door to their flat and burst into the living room. Rose looked up at him, looking dazed and confused even as her mother sobbed against her shoulder and the Doctor cringed,

“It’s not 12 hours. It’s er- 12 months. You’ve been gone a year.” He had both their attention now, Jackie looking like she wanted to yell at him but couldn’t be bothered to let go of her daughter just yet. The Doctor laughed a little uncomfortably at the attention, “Sorry about that.”

Jackie pulled away from her daughter, then after looking back and forth between her and the Doctor, she shook her head and huffed,

“Stay right there, the both of you. I need to call the police. Let them know my daughter’s back all on her own after having gone missing for a year.”

Rose bit her lip as she watched her mum walk away, once she was out of sight though, she rounded on the Doctor and swatted his shoulder, “What the hell, Doctor!?”

“I don’t know what happened!” The Doctor protested, pouting slightly even as he rubbed at his arm. Her light slap hadn't hurt a bit, but his contrite expression did soften the glare she had been directing at him, “I’d put down the right coordinates. If you want to blame anyone, blame the TARDIS.”

“I don’t know about that. You’d gotten the date wrong the last time too. Maybe you’re just a bad driver.”

“Oi!” He glared at her, but couldn’t help but feel relieved. She couldn’t be that mad at him if she was teasing him about his frankly fantastic piloting skills. Jackie came back in the room then, a cordless phone in her hand and a suspicious look in her eyes as she surveyed the two of them. The Doctor took a discreet step back, not even realizing when they two of them had crossed the distance between them to stand inches apart.

“Officer Davidson will be here in a few minutes. In the meantime, will you please tell me where you’ve been for the past _year,_ Rose?”

Rose didn’t know what to say. It hadn’t _been_ a year for her. She had been gone for a few days at best. Not really even long enough to miss her mom considering how much of that time she had spent either having fun or running for her life. Or well, both. Jackie stared at her imploringly and then cried out when her daughter didn’t reply. 

The Doctor was doing his best trying to disappear into a wall. He hated domestics. It hadn’t occurred to him before that being with a young 21st century human woman would mean he would have to also interact with her family. And well, as much as he loved her, because he really, honestly did, he could do with a little less family drama that came with Rose Tyler.

There was a knock on the door before Jackie’s temper could skyrocket, and she pushed past the both of them with a huff to get the door. Officer Davidson was a young man in his late twenties and seemed almost nervous when he was met with Jackie Tyler’s frustration and the Doctor’s impressive build. He was ushered to one of the arm chairs in the living room and he quickly took out his notepad,

“Miss Rose Tyler, I’m assuming.” The Detective asked, and Rose nodded. He scribbled something down on his notepad before looking up at her again, “I’m glad you’re home now, Ms.Tyler. Safe and unharmed from the looks of it. I just have a few questions for you. The first one, of course, is where have you been?”

Rose fell silent again, then bit her lips before replying, “Travelling. I’ve just been- travelling.”

“The hours I’ve sat here!” Jackie suddenly spit out, furious, “Days and weeks and months all on my own. I thought you were dead. And where were you? Travelling? That’s no sort of answer.” Jackie sighed when she got no reply, then turned back to the officer, “You ask her. She won’t tell me. That’s all she says, travelling.”

“That’s what I was doing!” Rose insisted,

“When your passport is still in the drawer?!” Jackie retorted hotly, “It’s just one lie after another!”

“I meant to phone! I really did. I just- forgot.”

“What? For a year? You forgot for a year? And I’m left standing here? I just don’t believe you. Why won’t you tell me where you’ve been?”

The Doctor couldn’t watch anymore. The back and forth was getting a bit painful. He cleared his throat a little self-consciously, and took a step forward,

“Actually, it’s my fault. I sort of er- employed Rose as my companion.”

Jackie directed her infamous glare at him then, and he took half a step back even as she got up all in his face, “Then what is it? Because you- you waltz in here all smiles and charms, and the next thing I know, she vanishes off the face of the earth! Hold old are you then? 40? 45? What, you find her on the internet? Did you go online and pretend to be a Doctor?”

The Doctor, indigent, crossed his arms over his chest, “I _am_ a Doctor.”

“Prove it. Stitch this, mate!”

And that was how, for the very first time in nine hundred years, the Doctor got slapped by someone’s mother.

\--

Somewhere further away in London, Westminster, to be exact, there was an identical blue police box parked in a dark alley. A man stepped out of the box, his grey hair large, unruly and gravity-defying, his suit pressed, and his blue-grey eyes sharp as he walked with purpose. This had been his routine for the past year or so, but knowing exactly what day today was, produced an extra skip in his step as he walked towards his place of work.

10 Downing Street.

People avoided Malcolm Tucker like a plague as he stepped into the building and headed for his office. He had a reputation of sorts, you see. Working directly under the Prime Minister, Malcolm Tucker was quite possibly the scariest individual on planet earth. The only two individuals in the building who could hold a fairly civil conversation with him were his secretary Sam Cassidy and his second-in-command Jamie McDonald.

Malcolm closed the door to his office after pointedly telling Sam to cancel all of his appointments of the day. They wouldn’t matter anyway. Soon enough, the people of Britain would be focused on something much bigger than the policies of a few obscure ministers. He glanced at his wedding band, and couldn’t help the small smile that took over his perpetual frown. It had been a while since he’d seen his wife, seeing as the both of them had two different causal loops in two different time periods to take care of.

He really was looking forward to today.

\--

Rose and the Doctor were sitting on the rooftop, staring up at the sky. The Doctor had taken off his jacket when she had come out after him and had shivered in the cold March air. It now hung heavily over her shoulders, engulfing her frame and canooning her in warmth. It smelled like him too. Something woodsy and heavy and comforting. She was certain she could fall asleep to that scent. And she would’ve too, if her mind wasn’t running a mile a minute,

“I can’t tell her.” She said suddenly, breaking the comfortable silence that had grown around them, “I can’t even _begin._ She’s never going to forgive me. I missed a year? Was it good?”

The Doctor shrugged, trying for nonchalance, “Middling.”

Her lip twitched in a smile, “You’re so useless.”

“Well, if it’s this much trouble, are you going to stay here now?” He was carefully avoiding looking at her, keeping his gaze at the London skyline instead. She took advantage and stared at him unabashedly. She thought of the TARDIS, her own space in that ship. She thought of him, and her place in his life. She thought of their adventures together. Always exciting, always dangerous, always wonderful.

“I dunno. I want to. But, I can’t do that to her again, either.”

The Doctor scoffed, crossed his arms but his shoulders slumped a little in relief, “Well, she’s not coming with us.” He muttered gruffly, palming his cheek.

Rose burst out into laughter, the Doctor joining in after a moment, “She slapped you!”

“Nine hundred years of time and space and I’ve never been slapped by someone’s mother.”

“Your face!” She grinned at him, teasing, and the Doctor pouted a little just to see that smile brighten a little more,

“It hurt!”

Rose shook her head and sighed, looking back at the skyline. Silence engulfed them again, and Rose repeated what he had said back in her mind,

“When you say nine hundred years-” She trailed off, waiting for him to clarify,

“That’s my age.”

“You’re nine hundred years old.” She didn’t know why she was surprised. He was an alien who time travelled through all of space in a ship that looked like a police box from the 1960s. This shouldn’t faze her one bit.

“Yeah.”

Nine hundred. She was nineteen. Will be turning twenty next month. Or well, did skipping a year mean she was twenty and will be turning twenty-one next month? Either way, it really was-

“Mum was right. That is one hell of an age gap.” Rose shook her head and stood up, walking over to the edge of the terrace, “Every conversation with you just goes mental. There is no one else I can talk to. I’ve seen all that stuff up there, the size of it, and I can’t say a word. Aliens and spaceships and things, and I’m the only person on the planet who knows they exist.”

As if summoned by her words, a spaceship suddenly zoomed right over their heads and in the direction of the Big Ben. The Doctor jumped up and joined her, and together they watched as the ship crashed into the clock tower before falling straight into the Thames river.

“Oh, that’s just not fair.” Rose breathed before turning to look at The Doctor. He was grinning at her, and laughed when she matched his enthusiasm with her own smile. Grabbing her hand, he pulled her to towards the door leading downstairs,

“Come along, Rose Tyler. Adventure awaits.”

\--

10 Downing Street was in absolute chaos. People were rushing about, papers were flying, phones were ringing off their hooks. In the middle of all of it, Malcolm Tucker strode out of his office and motioned for his PA to follow him as he walked over to Jamie’s desk. The man was busy shouting orders on the phone, his language colorful enough to make any Scotsman proud. The Doctor promptly turned over the base of the landline and cut the line from the switch hook.

Jamie looked up at him, horrified, the handset hanging uselessly from his hand, “What the fuck did you do that for?”

“You and Sam are going home.” Malcolm answered calmly. His tone was different enough from his usual screaming orders that it got both of his subordinates' attention.

“Like hell we are.” Jamie argued, crossing his arms over his chest, “In case you haven’t fucking noticed, boss, a bloody spaceship just fucking crashed right into the fucking Thames-”

“Yes, Jamie. I’m not fucking blind.” Malcolm rolled his eyes. He really should fire this kid. Who the fuck did he think he was anyway, talking back like that? “And I’m telling you to take the fucking day off. That’s a bloody _order_. Do you understand that, you bloody donkey?”

Jamie gritted his teeth. Then turned to look at Sam who was still standing a little ways behind Malcolm. She looked just as surprised as him at the unexpected order, but she wasn’t protesting. Smart woman that she was, she always knew better than to argue with a metal post. He sighed, then grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair, and pulled out his keys from his pocket,

“Come on,” He nodded towards Sam, “I’ll give you a ride to your apartment.”

Before leaving though, Jamie looked back at Malcolm one last time and pointed at him threateningly, “You better have a good fucking explanation for this tomorrow.”

The kid had guts. Malcolm had to respect that. His lips twitched a little in a smile, and he waved them off, “Get the fuck out of here.”

_Good bye._ He added mentally.

\--

The Doctor wanted to hit something. 

Watching the news at the Tyler women’s flat had seemed like a good idea when Rose had suggested it to him. Now, though, he would rather be anywhere else but here. The entire flat was teeming with people from their neighborhood, all of them either fussing over or interrogating Rose about her disappearance. The Doctor tried to tune them out at first. With his superior senses, it wasn’t that difficult to divert all his focus to the television. But, then some lady or the other from two doors down brought her kids over, and Jackie started talking about some George bloke who had asked her out, and it was just- all too much for him.

Rose followed him when he walked out of the flat, and he turned around with a sigh when she asked him to wait,

“Where are you going?” She asked him, walking closer till they were only a feet apart. The Doctor scratched his head a little sheepishly and grimaced,

“Nowhere. It’s just a little too human for me, in there. History just happened and they’re talking about where you can buy dodgy top up cards for half price. I’m off on a wander. That’s all.”

Rose scoffed, but he could see that she was amused, “Right. There’s a spaceship on the Thames and you’re just ‘wandering’.”

“Nothing to do with me.” The Doctor shrugged in response, trying to convince her, “It’s not an invasion. It’s a genuine crash landing. Angle of descent, color of smoke, everything! It’s perfect.”

And that was the problem, wasn’t it? It was all just a little bit _too_ perfect. He hated lying to Rose, he really did. But, he didn’t think Jackie would appreciate the both of them disappearing on her again. Not to mention, the Doctor had no idea what they were dealing with. Maybe it really was planet Earth’s first contact with alien life. Time was forever in flux, after all. Just a little bit of sleuthing, and then he’ll come for Rose and they would solve this together. 

“You don’t need me.” He told her, “Go and celebrate history. Spend time with your mum.”

Rose hesitated before nodding, not looking very convinced but letting it go anyway. It wasn’t until he had started walking away that she stopped him again,

“Promise me you won’t disappear.”

The Doctor turned around, “Tell you what,” He dug through his pockets, pulled out the chain necklace that held a key he had made just last night while she had been sleeping, “TARDIS key. About time you had one.” He tossed it to her, and turned around before he could see her reaction, his ears turning a bit red, “See you later!”

Rose caught the chain without a thought, and opened her palm to examine it. It was a delicate gold, and a yale key hung from it. But, that’s not what made her breath hitch. Next to the key, hung a pretty red rose, stems and leaves made of gold. A smile spread across her lips even as she blushed. By the time she looked up again, the Doctor was gone. But, the warmth in her chest still remained, and she walked back to the apartment with a skip in her step.

The Doctor walked down the apartment and out in the parking lot, grinning a little at all the ‘Welcome Aliens!’ and ‘Hello ET!’ banners the residents had hastily painted and tied to their balconies. He stopped in front of the TARDIS, a frown taking over his face when he realised someone had graffitied the side of it with white paint-

More specifically, graffitied the words ‘BAD WOLF’ to the side of the TARDIS. 

The words themselves didn’t mean much to him other than they were somehow related to Rose in a way even she didn’t know about yet. He didn’t know if they were a good sign or not, but they had been following the two of them persistently wherever they’ve been to yet.

He wondered if he should make another trip to The Library.

But no, he wasn’t that man anymore. He was the last of the Time Lords. It was his responsibility to preserve time. To ensure that no paradoxes were created. Besides, the last thing he wanted to do was leave Earth without Rose and accidentally land a year later.

Jackie Tyler’s slap had been bad enough. He didn’t want to find out how much of a punch Rose Tyler’s slap could pack if he ever broke a promise.

The TARDIS’ hum was a little sheepish when he entered, and he rolled his eyes at her attempt at trying to suck up to him. He knew he had put in the right coordinates. It really was the TARDIS’ fault they had end up a year too late,

“Oh, you can’t talk your way out of this one, Old girl.” He called out even as he moved to the rotor and began the dematerialisation sequence, “I got _slapped_ because of you. Not to mention, Rose now thinks I’m a bad driver because of this stunt of yours.”

The console began to smoke a little worryingly as he input the new coordinates, and the Doctor, getting a bit worried, got out his trusty mallet and hit one of the keypads with it. Surprisingly enough, that seemed to help, and he grinned up at the rotor when the TARDIS landed with a wild thump.

The TARDIS had handed in a small store room of sorts. He had been aiming for the morgue where the supposed ‘alien body’ was being kept. He shrugged before going to open the door, only, when he did, suddenly there were a dozen guns pointing right at him.

Right. Hospital containing an extraterrestrial corpse. There were bound to be soldiers involved. 

The Doctor grinned, and at that exact moment from further inside, a woman screamed. His smile fell in an instant, and he ran for the door, 

“Defence part delta!” He commanded the soldiers, but all they did was stare at each other confusedly. He made an impatient noise at the back of his throat, “Come on! Move. Move!”

Together, they ran across the corridors towards where the scream had come from. There was an Asian lady cowering on the floor. She looked up at them with wide eyes, her breath stuttering,

“It’s alive.” She whimpered. The Doctor turned to the soldiers behind him,

“Spread out. Tell the perimeter it’s a lock down.” He ordered then ran over to the doctor still crouching in the corner. She had a cut bleeding from under her hairline. He placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder,

“My God. It’s still alive.”

The Doctor turned to watch the men still standing there. Irritated, he snapped at them, “Do it!”

The soldiers dispersed and the Doctor turned back to the woman next to him. She had a badge on her lab coat. Dr.Sato it read. The Doctor squeezed her arm to bring her attention to him,

“Coma, hibernation, shock, could’ve been anything. What did it look like?”

Somewhere in the room, there was a light thud, and Dr.Sato jerked in fright, “It’s still here.” She whispered to him.

The Doctor nodded, pressed his finger against his lip to ask her to be quiet. Signalling one of the soldiers nearest to him to follow him, he walked slowly over to the other side of the room. Something snorted. The Doctor crouched down to his hands and knees in order to peer over the table standing between him and the creature,

It was a pig. An actual pig in a space suit. 

“Hello!” The Doctor greeted. He had never seen this species before. But hopefully the TARDIS would translate just as well. The pig startled though, and ran away instead, using only it’s hind legs. The soldier behind him cocked his gun, but the Doctor stopped him,

“Don’t shoot.” He ordered, “It’s just scared.”

He ran after it, following the snorting cries of the animal. He turned another corner just in time to see one of the other soldiers shoot the creature in the chest,

“What did you do that for!” The Doctor yelled, running over to kneel next to the alien, “It was just scared.”

Nobody answered him, everybody too spooked to say a word. The Doctor sighed before checking for signs of life with his sonic. But no, whatever it was, it really was dead this time. He carried the creature back into the morgue. Dr.Sato seemed to have gathered herself in the meantime. She was still trembling a little, but when she saw the Doctor bringing the alien and laying it on the table, she walked over calmly. The Doctor examined the body more extensively, using the sonic screwdriver to find out exactly where the alien had come from,

“That makes everything much more clear.” The Doctor said, reading the data displayed, “It’s not alien. It’s just a regular earth pig.”

“Really?” Dr.Sato frowned, “But- it was bipedal. I watched it run.”

“Well, it’s more like a mermaid. Victorian showmen used to draw the crowds by taking the skull of a cat and gluing it to a fish and calling it a mermaid. Now, someone's taken a pig, opened up it's brain, stuck bits on... then they strapped it in that ship and made it a dive bomb. It must've been terrified. They've taken this animal and turned it into a joke.”

The Doctor couldn’t help but feel sorry for the poor creature. Whatever it was that had done this to the poor animal, it wasn’t human. Humans didn’t have this kind of technology. But, why would something alien plant a fake alien in a spaceship and crash it deliberately on Earth?

Whatever the reason was, this clearly wasn’t supposed to be the Earth’s first contact with alien life. Which meant that this was an invasion.

He needed to get back to Rose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *the twelfth doctor has entered the chat*
> 
> oh, im so excited about writing his interactions with Rose and Nine. Hell, even harriet jones ><
> 
> for those of you who arent aware, peter capaldi played a character named Malcolm Tucker in a british comedy show called 'The Thick Of it' [HIGHLY RECOMMENDED] anyway, malcolm essentially works at no 10, and considering where most of this episode takes place, a crossover was just begging to be written. so here it is!
> 
> on another note, if you want to see what the pendant that the Doctor made for Rose looks like, you can click [here](https://ymnfilter.tumblr.com/post/643932270776958976)
> 
> as always, kudos and comments are forever appreciated ^°^
> 
> you can find me on:
> 
> twitter: [@ymnfilter ](https://twitter.com/ymnfilter)
> 
> tumblr: [@ymnfilter ](https://ymnfilter.tumblr.com/)


	9. Episode 4: Aliens In London [Part 2]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh, i think y'all are going to enjoy this one ;)
> 
> HAPPY READING!
> 
> As always, you can find me on:
> 
> twitter: [@ymnfilter ](https://twitter.com/ymnfilter)
> 
> tumblr: [@ymnfilter ](https://ymnfilter.tumblr.com/)

Rose is staring at the tv screen playing infomercials for snuggle blankets, her fingers playing with the pendant and key hanging from the chain around her neck that Doctor had given her when all the neighbors who had gathered in their living room suddenly felt silent. She blinked, turned around, and promptly froze,

Mickey.

She stood up, suddenly awkward, and cringed when he shot her a glare,

“Somebody owes Mickey an apology.” Bev from two doors down sang under her breath.

“I was going to call you. I’m sorry.” Rose offered, though really, he hadn’t been on her mind at all considering everything that had happened since her and the Doctor had come back.

“Not you.” Bev scoffed, then looked pointedly at Jackie who was staring at her drink, pretending to ignore everyone. She looked up with a scowl, angry at being called out,

“It’s not my fault! Be fair, what was I supposed to think?”

It was going to turn into a spectacle, Rose could already tell. She walked over to her mom, taking her arm and trying to pull her further inside, silently asking Mickey to join them, “Can we take this to the kitchen please?”

As soon as they were in the kitchen, Mickey shut the doors behind him, and whipped around to glare at Rose, “You disappeared. Who were they going to turn to? Your boyfriend. Five times I was taken into questioning. _Five times_. No evidence. Of course there couldn’t be, could there? And then, I get _her_ , your mother.” He pointed at Jackie, who rolled her eyes in response, though she did look a little contrite, “Whispering around the estate, pointing the finger, stuff through my letterbox, and all ‘cause of you.”

“I didn’t think I’d be gone that long.” Rose implored. But, Mickey continued as if he hadn’t heard her at all,

“And I waited for you, Rose! Twelve months! Waiting for you and the Doctor to come back.”

Rose cringed, because she hadn’t really come back, had she? She was just- visiting. After everything she had seen, everything she had lived through, how could she go back to her life of beans on toast and telly?

“Hold on,” Jackie started, “You knew about the Doctor? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Mickey gave Rose a look, “Yeah, yeah. Why not, Rose? Huh? How could I tell her where you went?”

“Mickey, please-”

“Tell me now.” Jackie demanded, cutting her off, “She wouldn’t say a word. Not since she’s got home. So, you can tell me. About the Doctor.”

“Well, I might as well.” Mickey agreed, crossing his arms over his chest, “ ‘cause you’re stuck here now. The Doctor’s gone. Just now, I saw it. The box thing just faded away.”

Rose’s eyes widened, and suddenly it didn’t matter that her mum was on the verge of finding out about aliens, or that Mickey’s triumphant smirk was decidedly smug. All that mattered was that the Doctor had promised-

Had he though?

He _had_. He had given her a key.

“What do you mean?” She asked, voice smaller even as she clutched the key hanging from her neck tighter,

“He’s left you. Some boyfriend  _ he _ turned out to be.” Mickey scoffed, then rolled his eyes, “It’s just Jimmy Stone all over again, isn’t it?”

And no, The Doctor was a lot of things. He was a lot of brilliant, marvelous, wonderful things. But he was nothing like Jimmy at all. Without a word, she turned around, and ran outside.

Outside, the street where the Doctor had parked the TARDIS was deserted, the ship nowhere to be found. She bit her lip, looked around, her shoulders slumping when she couldn’t find the TARDIS anywhere,

“He wouldn’t just go.” She mumbled, “He promised.” Pulling off the chain from her neck, she stared down at the key and pendant. Why else would he give her this, if he had only intended to abandon her?

“Oh, he’s dumped you, Rose.” Mickey crowed, his tone getting nastier by the second. Rose frowned at him, “Sailed off into space. How does it feel, huh? Now you’re left behind with the rest of us Earthlings. Get used to it.”

Rose shook her head, “He would’ve said.” She didn’t know where the faith was coming from honestly. After all, she had only really known the Doctor for a couple of days at best. Maybe he got tired of the silly little human. Maybe the key was not a TARDIS key at all and just something he had in his pocket. Maybe he only gave it to her so that she wouldn’t follow him back to his ship and beg him not to leave.

All of those should have been valid scenarios, and yet for the life of her, Rose knew he hadn’t abandoned her. He wouldn’t. 

Jackie came out of the flat then, arms tightly crossed over her chest and feet stomping on the ground in her annoyance, “What’re you two chimps going about, then? What’s going on? What’s this Doctor done now?”

Mickey laughed, ignoring the venomous glare Rose shot him, “He’s taken off!”

“He hasn’t! He’s given me a key and everything!” She protested, showing him the necklace. His smile dimmed a little at the sight of the pendant, but he shrugged in response. Just then, the key glowed, a bright gold that warmed Rose’s hand and she blinked, lips widening with a grin when a gusts of winds started blowing from in front of one of the closed shops,

“I said so!” She yelled at Mickey over the now familiar sounds of the TARDIS engines, resisting the childish urge to show him her tongue. The police box began to materialize with groans and wheezes, and Rose abruptly remembered that her mother was still there, watching it all,

“Mum!” Rose turned around, “Mum, go inside. Just, don’t stand there, just go inside.” She tried pushing her towards their flat buildings, but Jackie wouldn’t budge. Instead, she stood right there, mouth agape as the TARDIS finished materializing and the Doctor stepped out the doors with a grin,

“So, how long was I gone then?”

Both Jackie and Mickey were speechless, and Rose left them to their gawking with a huff in order to drag the Doctor back into his ship and up the ramps till they were next to the time rotor,

“I thought you said you were just going to wander off a little.” She accused him, hands on her hips,

“I did wander!” He protested, but he did look a bit sheepish, “Just, wandered off in the TARDIS.”

She narrowed her eyes, not at all placated by his excuses. He had just fibbed to her. Right to her face. The Doctor took one look at her glare, then sighed,

“Alright, so I lied. Sorry.”

Rolling her eyes, she gave up her defensive stance and sidled a little closer, “So, where did you go?”

“To check out that alien they found. At the morgue. The whole crash landing thing’s a fake”

Rose’s brows furrowed, “I thought you said that it was perfect. Earth’s first contact and all that.”

“A bit too perfect, this one.” The Doctor nodded towards one of the TARDIS screens showing live footage of the Thames, “I mean, crashing into the Big Ben, come on. That’s just too much.”

Just then, the Mickey barreled in through the open TARDIS doors, Jackie following in behind him. She stopped short a step into the ship, but Mickey walked over till the bottom of the ramp, his expression furious,

“What’re they doing here?” The Doctor asked, leaning closer to Rose, his tone a theatrical whisper,

“Mickey saw you disappear.” She whispered back, “He came over to tell me. Mum followed us out.”

The Doctor made a face, “Really wish you hadn’t brought your domestics back to the ship.” He said out loud, and just for that comment, Rose smacked his arm,

“You ruined my life, Doctor!” Mickey started, “They thought she was dead. I was a murder suspect because of you.”

The Doctor turned to Rose once again, “See what I mean? Domestic.”

“I bet you don’t even remember my name.” Mickey challenged, ignoring their banter,

“Yes, I do. Rickey.”

“It’s  _ Mickey _ !” 

“No, it’s Rickey.” The Doctor corrected, completely shamelessly,

“I think I know my own name.”

“You  _ think  _ you know your own name? How stupid are you?”

“Doctor, stop bullying him.” Rose sighed. Next to Mickey, Jackie was gaping at the ship, her face pale as she realized what her daughter had gotten herself into. She ran.

Rose watched her leave, hesitating because even as much as she wanted to follow her mother, as much as she wanted to comfort her and let her know that she was alright, and that the Doctor was a brilliant man, there were more important things in the work. She pulled the Doctor back from where both he and Mickey were riling each other up, getting his attention,

“Doctor, you were saying the crash landing was a fake?”

“Yep.”

“But the spaceship is real?”

“Yep.”

“So, what is it then? Are there aliens invading after all?”

Mickey joined them then, peering over at the screen where every news channel in the world was still talking about crash landing, “That would be a funny way to invade. Putting the world on red alert.”

The Doctor looked at least a little grudgingly impressed as he nodded, “He’s right. It’s not an invasion. But, it’s definitely alien. So, the question is, what are they planning?”

Just then, something down under the console, sparked and shorted out, making both Rose and Mickey jump in surprise. The Doctor let out a frustrated sigh, before getting out his sonic screwdriver and getting under the grating to see what had gone wrong now,

“Do you need any help?” Rose asked, already knowing there wasn’t anything she could really help him with. But the Doctor peered over the engine to look at her anyway, and his lip twitched a little in a smile,

“A cuppa would be nice.”

Rose smiled back, then grabbing Mickey by the sleeve, tugged him towards the galley.

“So, you’re friend’s still as rude as ever.” Mickey muttered, eyes roaming over the ship as they walked through multiple hallways to reach the kitchen. Rose shook her head,

“He’s just winding you up.” Rose reassured him, grabbing two mugs from one of the cupboards before turning to Mickey, “Will you take one?”

Mickey frowned, eyeing the mugs suspiciously, “Is it alien?”

“Alien tea?” Rose blinked, “Mickey, it’s just English breakfast.”

He didn’t look like he believed her though, and shook his head, “No thanks.”

Rose shrugged, “Suit yourself.” Then went about making some for her and the Doctor. 

Mickey stared at her quietly for a moment, then shuffled his feet, “Is that what you do here then? Make tea?”

“Well, I can’t very well help him repair a time and spaceship, now can I? Didn’t even finish school, me.”

“So why are you with him anyway?” He asked finally, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the counter, “A year I waited, Rose. I looked for you everywhere.”

She pressed her lips tight, “I really am sorry, Mickey. I didn’t know. It’s only been a couple of days for me.”

“No time to miss me then.” Mickey asked, giving her a sardonic smile. Rose grimaced, shuffled her feet a little,

“Of course I did. Both you and mum.”

“You’ve always been a shit liar, Rose Tyler.” Mickey sighed, then straightened up, “Guess that means you aren’t going to stay?”

“I can’t. I’m sorry, I can’t.” She looked up at him, willing him to understand, “I love it. Travelling with him. It’s beautiful out there.”

Mickey didn’t answer, and the kettle beeped. She hurried to fix their tea, black with one sugar for the doctor and cream and honey for her. The silence grew awkward fast, and she was glad to get out the room when the Doctor shouted for her from the console room,

“What is it?” She asked, hurrying with their mugs of tea. The way this time was much shorter, the TARDIS having shifted rooms again, and Rose knew that Mickey was confused.

“I fixed it. Patched it in the radar, looped it back twelve hours so we could follow the spaceship. Here we go- hold on.” She moved over to stand beside him, handing over his mug. He took it with a mumbled ‘ta’, taking a sip and gagging a little almost immediately,

She blinked, then looked down at her own mug, “Oh wait, that’s mine. Sorry.”

He hmmed, and they exchanged cups. The next sip he took was accompanied with a happy little sound in the back of his throat, and she smiled, before taking a sip herself.

The Doctor turned the screen towards her once it had loaded, and pointed at a green point blinking on a map, “See. That’s the spaceship on its way to the earth. Except, see, the ship did a slingshot around the earth before it landed.”

“What does that mean?” She asked leaning closer to the screen, and subsequently, against the Doctor’s side,

“It means it came from the Earth in the first place. It went up and then back down.” He explained, pointing out the trajectory, “Whoever those aliens are, they haven’t just arrived. They’ve been here for a while. The question is, what have they been doing?”

\--

10 Downing Street had been infiltrated by aliens. Malcolm had seen them, compressed into the bodies of overweight leaders of Great Britain. Nothing he could do about them at the moment, though. So, he just kept a close eye on them. Watched one of the junior secretaries, Indra Ganesh, he remembered, as he trailed after them. He took care to stay in the shadows as he observed them. It was not yet time for him to show up.

“General Asquith! Sir, we have a priority alarm. A Code Nine. A confirmed Code nine.”

Malcolm smirked. He was here then.

“Code nine, huh? Which would mean?”

Indra looked confused at their lack of knowledge, but informed them anyway, “Well, in the event of the emergency protocols being activated, we’ve got software that automatically searches all communications for keywords. And one of those words is ‘the Doctor’. I think we’ve found him, sir.”

“What sort of Doctor? Who is he?” One of the other S litheen disguised leaders asked,

“Well, evidently he’s some sort of an expert in extraterrestrial affairs. The ultimate expert. And we need him, Sir. We need him right now.”

\--

Back on the TARDIS, the Doctor was sorting through all the news channels, trying to find out anything else he could about the spaceship,

“How many channels do you get?” Rickey asked him, sounding but sullen and curious at the same time.

“All the basic packages.” The Doctor replied, a bit curt. But, how else was he supposed to he treat his future wife’s maybe-boyfriend?

“You get sport channels?”

The Doctor rolled his eyes, 21st century boys and their obsession with games. He’d never understand it. 

“Yes, I’ve got football.” The channel switched again, and the Doctor paused, “Hold on. I know that bloke.”

A reporter was standing in front of 10 Downing street, town cars coming in as important looking people entered the building, the Doctor pointed out one of the men getting out of the many cars,

“It is looking like the government is bringing in alien experts.” The reporter was saying, “Those people who have dedicated their lives to studying the outer space.”

“UNIT!” The Doctor remembered, “United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. Good people.”

“You know them?” Rose asked, 

“He worked for them.” Mickey interrupted before the Doctor could reply himself. The Doctor gave him a surprised look, and Mickey smirked victoriously, “Yeah, don’t think I sat on my backside for twelve months, Doctor. I read up on you. You look deep enough on the internet, and in the history books, and there’s his name. Followed by a list of the dead.”

The Doctor scowled, “Yeah, that’s nice. Good boy, Ricky.”

Mickey gritted his teeth, and was about to retort when Rose broke the tension, walking over to touch the Doctor’s arm, “If you know them, why don’t you go and help?”

“They won’t recognize me. Changed a lot since they last saw me.” The Doctor answered vaguely, “Besides, the world’s on a knife’s edge. There’s aliens out there and fake aliens. We want to keep this alien out of the mix.” He pointed at himself with a cheeky grin, “I’m going undercover. And eh- better keep the TARDIS out of sight.” He turned to look at Mickey, a brow raised, “Rickey! You’ve got a car. You can do some driving.”

They began to walk outside the TARDIS, 

“Where to?” Mickey asked, not understanding why he had agreed to easily in the first place.

“The roads are clearing. Let’s go and have a look at the spaceship.”

Only, as soon as they were out on the street, they were immediately caught by a searchlight. The sound of helicopters deafening,

“DO NOT MOVE!” A man’s voice said from a loudspeaker up above. Police cars were surrounding them, guns pointed, but Mickey didn’t listen. He gunned for it instead. Rose looked up at the Doctor worriedly, only he didn’t look worried at all. He was grinning, hands up in surrender. She followed him after a moment.

“Take me to your leader!” The Doctor shouted up.

They were escorted to one of the town cars, no handcuffs or unnecessary manhandling. Rose was confused as she sat in, the Doctor on the other side of the backseat, “This is a bit posh.” She whispered to him, “If I knew it was gonna be like this, being arrested, I’d have done it years ago.”

The Doctor snorted, “We’re not being arrested. We’re being escorted.”

“Where to?”

“Where do you think? Downing street.”

Rose froze. Surely, he was joking. “You’re kidding.” She breathed out, eyes wide,

The Doctor laughed, “No, I’m not.”

“10 Downing Street?!” She asked, just to be sure,

“That’s the one.”

Rose joined him, both of them giggling, “Oh my God! I’m going to 10 Downing street!” She turned to him then, “How come?”

“I hate to say it, but Rickey was right.” The Doctor huffed, and looked genuinely offended at having to admit it, “Over the years, I’ve visited this planet a lot. And let’s just say that I’ve been- uh, noticed.”

“Now, they need you?”

“Like it said on the news, they’re gathering experts in alien knowledge. And who’s the biggest expert of the lot?” He asked, looking at her expectantly,

“Patrick Moore?” She teased, making him pout a little,

“Apart from him.”

“Ah, don’t you just love it..”

“I’m telling you. Lloyd George, he used to drink me under the table. Who’s the Prime Minister now?”

“How should I know? I missed a year.” She looked out of the window when they started hearing camera flashes. The windows of the car were tinted, but she could still see the bright lights and all the people clamoring for a good picture,

“Oh my god.” She breathed out. Next to her, the Doctor reached out and took her hand which had been resting between them, interlocking their fingers before squeezing reassuringly,

Rose had only ever seen 10 Downing Street in pictures before, and even with all the commotion going on, she couldn’t help but stare. There was a man standing across the room who seemed to be in charge. He was speaking too all the experts that had been called in with an air of sufficient authority,

“Ladies and gentlemen, could we convene? Quick as we can, please. It’s this way on the right and can I remind you, ID cards must be worn at all times.” He walked over to them, handing over an ID card to the Doctor, “Here’s your ID. I’m sorry, your companion doesn’t have clearance.”

The Doctor frowned, “I don’t go anywhere without her.”

The man shook his head, “You’re Code Nine. Not her.” 

The Doctor was about to protest again, but before he could, another voice, thicker and gruffer, cut in,

“She can stay with me.”

Rose turned around, and was surprised to see another man standing quite close behind her. He was older, handsome in a distinguished sort of way, with silver hair styled immaculately and quite possibly the sharpest grey-blue eyes she had ever seen. He was looking down at her even as he spoke to the other man, those intense eyes scrutinizing her face with a look she didn’t even know how to begin to interpret, and she didn't know why, really there was no need to, but she blushed.

The Doctor was glaring at the newcomer, “And who might you be?”

“This is Malcolm Tucker.” The man in charge introduced them, for the first time looking quite nervous as he introduced Mr.Tucker to them, “He works right under the Prime Minister himself. I’m sure your companion will be in safe hands with him.”

The Doctor still looked a bit suspicious, and Rose could tell that the other man was getting quite impatient. She smiled brightly at the Doctor, hoping to reassure him the same way he had done for her back in the car, “It’s alright. You go.”

Just then, another woman joined them, looking quite harried as she shoved herself between the Doctor and Rose, “Excuse me, Are you the Doctor?”

“Not now, Ms.Harriet, We’re busy.” The man sighed, looked as if he might age another thirty years any minute now, “Can’t you just go home?”

The Doctor ignored both of them, eyes still on the man standing behind Rose. He was still suspicious, and looked more than a little lost, though, Rose couldn’t see why he should be so worried. She looked back at the other man, Mr.Tucker, to see him giving Doctor a knowing smirk, before placing a hand on Rose’s shoulder,

“Don’t worry, Doctor. Your companion is in the safest hands possible.”

The Doctor’s eyes narrowed again, but instead of answering, he looked at Rose instead, “You sure?”

Rose nodded, “Yeah, they’re experts. You should hear what they’ve got to say.”

He didn’t look very convinced, but he nodded anyway, “I suppose so. Don’t get in any trouble.”

They watched him follow the rest of the experts into the room, and behind her, the man mumbled, in that same thick Scottish accent that had sent goosebumps across her skin, “Don’t make any promises.”

She turned to him, a question on the tip of her tongue, but froze when she found him still looking at her. Now that the Doctor was gone, the look in his eyes had changed, warmed in that same strangely affectionate way the Doctor looked at her sometimes when he thought she wouldn’t notice, only it was somehow more intense still. It made her breath hitch slightly.

“Hello.” He greeted, smiling down so softly at her, It was as if they’d known each other an eternity instead of meeting for the first time.

“Hi.” She couldn’t help but mumble back. She could feel her cheeks warm again, and couldn’t understand the effect that this man was having on her. She could feel herself gravitate towards him in a way she’d only been compelled to be in the presence of the Doctor. Silence surrounded them, and it ought’ve been awkward, staring at a stranger and being stared back at without a word being exchanged, only it wasn’t awkward at all.

“I just need a word in private.” The woman was pleading with the organizer, standing not two feet away from her, but for all that Rose paid attention to them, they might as well have been a million miles away.

“It’s not going to happen. You haven’t got clearance. Now leave it.” He huffed one last time, before walking away. The woman sighed, then turned around, pausing when she saw Malcolm Tucker locked in the queerest staring match she had ever seen with The Doctor’s companion. Her brows furrowed, for all the rumors she had heard about him being basically the devil in a suit, he sure looked perfectly harmless in that moment. Gentle and warm and far too intimate to be in the middle of a hallway inside 10 Downing street.

She stepped closer to them till she was standing across from them, looking back and forth between them. When neither of them acknowledged her, she cleared her throat sharply-

Rose jumped, but Malcolm himself just looked languidly back at the other woman. She was about to pull out her ID, but before she could, he addressed her, “Ms. Harriet Jones, M.P, Flydale fucking North. I’m aware.”

Ah, that was the Malcolm Tucker she had heard about. Gruff and snappish. She pursued her lips, and decided to ignore him completely, instead turning to Rose,

“The Doctor? The man you came with? He’s your friend isn’t he? He knows about aliens?”

Rose narrowed her eyes, couldn’t help but get defensive, “Why do you wanna know?”

She didn’t know what she had expected, but it certainly hadn’t been to see Harriet Jones burst into tears. Her eyes widened, and she looked helplessly up at Mr.Tucker. He was looking down at Harriet Jones as if her crying was of utmost inconvenience,

“What do we do?” She panic-whispered to him. In response, he ushered the both of them into of the empty office rooms and closed the door behind him,

“It’s about the aliens in the body suits, isn’t it?” He asked Harriet in an attempt to move along the conversation. Harriet looked up at him, eyes wide and teary,

“You know about them?” She asked him, 

“Yes. Accidentally saw one of them unzip. Very disgusting.” He replied back calmly. She continued to stare up at him, looking as if she couldn’t understand him at all,

“Well then, why didn’t you say anything?”

“To who, exactly?” 

“Wait-” Rose interrupted, looked between them, “What, exactly, is going on?”

Malcolm sighed, but began explaining to Rose about the slitheen, taking care to steer clear of all the knowledge she wasn’t supposed to have yet. Her eyes widened, then grew suspicious,

“You’re taking this very well.” She observed suspiciously, “I mean, I travel with the Doctor. This is like a regular Tuesday for us. But, you- you aren’t surprised at all.”

Malcolm smiled down at her, all warm affection and pride, “There you are, my clever Rose Tyler.”

Rose flushed at the compliment, but couldn’t help but feel even more confused, “Who are you? You know me. Another person we meet out of order? We seem to do that a lot, me and the Doctor.”

“Eh. Close enough.” Malcolm shrugged, then suddenly grinned smugly, “I’m the Doctor.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a cliffhanger? of sorts? as much as a cliffhanger can be considering this is a season rewrite *sigh*
> 
> as always, kudos and comments are forever appreciated ^°^
> 
> you can find me on:
> 
> twitter: [@ymnfilter ](https://twitter.com/ymnfilter)
> 
> tumblr: [@ymnfilter ](https://ymnfilter.tumblr.com/)

**Author's Note:**

> can i just say, that whole speech the doctor does about the earth revolving and all? i love that speech. i fell in love with chris' doctor the moment he said that speech. that's all.
> 
> this work was kinda, a little bit, just a smidge inspired by Lumendea's 'Gaurdians of the Universe' verse. In the sense that I'm also going to be mixing up episodes in this series. Other than that, the two fics will not really share anything else in common. Her fics are still some of my favorites in this fandom though, so, I'll leave a link down below if you want to check out her 'Gaurdians of the Universe' series:
> 
> [link](https://archiveofourown.org/series/170732)
> 
> comments and leave kudos if you like this. and if you want to know when i update, talk to me or read some of my other works, you can always follow me on:
> 
> tumblr: [@ymnfilter](https://ymnfilter.tumblr.com)  
> twitter: [@ymnfilter](https://twitter.com/ymnfilter)


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